Sweater Season

It's sweater season again. I'm beyond excited. To celebrate my joy for all things sweaters, I wore the sweater that started my passion, to my first day of work this week. Here is the awkward picture for your viewing pleasure:

Yep, those are my husband's socks on the floor. And take a peek into my open spice cabinet too while you're looking. And basically just look around at everything else in the room but my awkward face.

Side note: those earrings are from my most recent trip to Seattle. . . blog post coming soon.

Additional side note: my butt looks really good in those pants. No picture for your viewing pleasure though. Sorry folks.

Cheap-O Curtains

So after our newly painted bedroom, I realized that our window was embarrassingly bare. Sure, the blinds are nice, but the wall needed a little extra oomph. Enter curtains.

I tossed around the idea of yellow or white curtains. Then I went out searching for curtains. Holy moly! They are expensive! Discount stores had more reasonably priced ones, but not in any color that I wanted. Enter frustration.

So I searched online for window treatments that didn't cost me my leg. I ran across the idea for curtains made out of flat sheets. Brilliant! I went to Target and discovered that since it's dorm room decorating season, bedding was on sale! $5 for a flat sheet! I snatched up two, then headed for Ross for a cheap curtain rod and curtain clips.

After washing and ironing my sheets (which, by the way, is probably the only time in my life I will ever iron bedsheets) I hastily hung up my sheets as curtains (hence the not-so-evenly-placed-curtain rings). Clearly, they need hemming, and I'm trying to decide if I want to take the lazy way (AKA iron on hem strips) or the scary way (AKA actually try to use my sewing machine and attempt a straight hem). My sewing confidence is about a 2/10. I'm gonna leave the curtains as is for now, and after I attempt to sew my Kate Middleton dress I might have the courage to hem the curtains properly.

 What do ya think? Since the curtains didn't cost me an arm and a leg, I'm inclined to switch them out with something a little more sophisticated should I see something that catches my eye. But I'm rather proud of my cheap budget friendly curtains.

Finally!

After 3.5 months of searching, 77 job applications and 2 interviews, I am pleased to announce that I FINALLY HAVE A JOB!

And these numbers were just the rejection emails in my inbox. I think I deleted a few at the beginning, but decided I should save them all to see how many applications is takes to find a job in the Portland nursing market. To say that there is a nursing shortage bewilders me.

And the unbelievable thing about this is, the job I have is only a temporary one. I'll be working for 3 months only as a computer support person when the hospital switches from paper to electronic charting. For some reason, they want RNs to teach the physicians how to use the computer charting one on one. I think it's because we speak medical jargon, so Docs don't have to waste time to explain to the IT guys what "D5W gtts TKO means".

So I will start at the end of September, working unpredictable schedules to support the staff, utilizing none of my nursing skills with zero patient interaction. Not exactly what I anticipated my first nursing job to be, but at this point I will take what I can get. Besides, I'm still getting an RN salary, and now my resume can say I have RN experience at a respected hospital, even though I didn't actually work with patients. And hopefully I can impress the physicians and other staff I work with and make them see how much they want me to work full time with them after this job ends.

We will see what the future holds, but I am so happy I have at least found a job and can do something/earn money this year! And the best part? I need to dress business casual for the job. Shopping trip after my first paycheck? I think yes! Heck, shopping trip for my first day of work? I think yes!

DIY Bible

Thanks to my good friend Alie, I have recently discovered my new favorite blog. Are you ready for it? It's Young House Love, which, I'll admit, sounds like kind of a hippy name. But seriously they are full of great ideas for DIY projects from decorating to painting, to yard work. It's a gold mine for people like me who are decorating challenged and want to make the most out of our small home.

It is from this website that I learned how to refinish furniture, as done with my coffee table, and reupholstered my dining room chairs thanks to this website's wonderful step by step instructions.

I highly recommend it for all of your DIY needs! I have literally spent hours reading up on all sorts of projects we can do, hence the lack of posts. Go check it out!

Thank You

The other day I was cleaning up and discovered that there 5 piles of get well cards lying around the house. 5! I gathered them all together for a picture, then realized that these were just the cards that are visible. . . I'm sure more have been accidentally thrown away, used as bookmarks, or succumbed to the crack behind the couch.


Thank you everyone for the cards, prayers, facebook messages, and emails. Tyler and I really feel so blessed to have so many concerned friends who are rooting for us. Cancer is scary (even when you're dealing with the most treatable kind with the highest survival rate) but having good friends makes it so much more bearable. We feel so lucky to know the people we know, and while we are far from many friends, we still feel your love and support. Thanks for caring. We will keep you posted on what happens next, for now we wait and hope the radiation did its job. Prayers are definitely needed and appreciated!

P.S. On the plus side, I've discovered that way more than the 9 followers of my blog actually read this little sucker. Who knew?! I feel so loved that people actually want to waste time reading about our ho-hum lives! And I promise, if you follow and comment on my blog, I will feel WAY more loved! :)

My Birthday Gift to Tyler

So this year for Ty's birthday, I went all sentimental and crafty. . . something WAY out of my league. But I figured why not try something new? I'm unemployed with all the time in the world, I can afford a more personal gift this year!


Basically it is a collage of the mementos from our dating days. I've been keeping this stuff forever in a folder, unbeknownst to Tyler. I think I was saving them for the day I became a scrapbooker, but I know that will never happen. And I thought that these "artifacts" deserved some TLC instead of being shoved in the filing cabinet. So I got my craft on. I made these collages to fit in this pack of frames I picked up on clearance forever ago.


Tyler loved it. He was completely shocked that I would save half of the things I did. But seriously, how could I throw away the movie tickets from our first date as boyfriend/girlfriend? And how could I throw away the bag from Kay Jewelers where he bought me pearl earrings? And the program from the play we saw on the night we got engaged? We have a lot of sweet memories jam packed into these frames, and we love em. And now we have something to put on the wall!
Oh, and the big S is something I made out of scrapbook paper. I just found a font that I liked and printed off an S in the largest size possible that would fit on a piece of paper. It was my pattern to cut the S out of scrapbook paper and I glued it onto white paper. Voila! Instant art.


We're pretty pleased with something being put on our blank wall. Problem is, we have blank walls in our bedroom too, and I'm wondering if this belongs there because it is more of a sentimental collage. Thoughts? For now it's staying in the living room because I'm so happy to have something up on that wall and I don't know what else to put there. But once I focus on our bedroom, I may have to do some rearranging.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Sunday was Tyler's birthday! And I officially win the award for worst wife of the year by taking only 2 pictures on his birthday, and they are both of his cake. But honestly we had a blast! I made breakfast in bed for him and let him open one of his presents early (a white shirt that he could wear to church that day haha). Then we went to church and I didn't even get mad at him when he made us late and arrive halfway through the opening hymn!

We learned a very important lesson that day. When you arrive to church late and scram to find an open seat it is most important that you sit next to a cute little family with kids who are avid crayon/coloring book fiends. We sat next to a 4 year old girl who was coloring, and she was so excited when Tyler sat next to her that she promptly gave him a page from her book and a crayon and told him to color with her. Basically, it was the best day of church ever for Tyler, who got to color all during Sacrament Meeting with an adorably cute 3 year old boy and 4 year old girl.

We got home and had a relaxing afternoon together, watching movies and snuggling/napping on the couch. Then we had Tyler's requested birthday dinner: steak and baked potatoes. Man food, right? It was glorious. Then I started working on assembling the cake I baked earlier and frosting it. It was heaven. Oh, and the cake is the same homemade recipe that Tyler used when he baked me a cake when we first started dating. Seriously, it won my heart over. What guy bakes a cake for a girl just because? I swooned and fell for him HARD that day. It was only fair I try my hand at baking this cake. And it turned out beautifully! I bought round cake pans specifically for this day and they are wonderful.

Then we opened presents. Tools and clothing. . . what every 26 year old wants, right? More on my gift to him tomorrow.Apologies for the crap pictures. . . cell phone camera + rushing for a pic before guests arrived = horrible picture

Then we had friends over for cake and ice cream. We had such a great time having people over! It's so nice to have people fill up our house! We had a blast with friends and playing with their kids (Tyler played hide and seek for about an hour with them in our backyard. . . I think that was the best present he could have received!). All in all, it was a wonderful day that we really enjoyed, despite the lack of pictures. Seriously, I think it was one of the best birthdays yet. I hope they keep getting better and better!