Most Wonderful Weekend EVER

So, pretty much I had the best weekend ever. Why might you ask? Well, it stems from my wonderful husband.

You see, about a week ago, he told me not to make any plans for my weekend, that he was taking me somewhere and it was a surprise. This, of course, piqued my interest. I asked him questions which he expertly answered so as to keep me excited, but not reveal anything. The location we were going to was within a 20 mile radius, casual clothing would be worn, it would take up a good portion of the day etc. All I knew was that he was planning something that he was sure I would love. And since I have to work on my birthday, this was to be an early birthday present when I don't live nocturnally.

Saturday rolls around, and where does my Tyler take me to?

BODY WORLDS of course!




Yes folks, I have finally seen the Body Worlds Exhibition I have been dying to see for the past, oh 5 years.  You see, back when we were dating, Body Worlds was in Salt Lake City. Tyler was planning on taking me then, but got sick so we delayed our trip. When we planned to go, we discovered that the exhibit had just closed and moved on. We literally missed it by days.

During our marriage, we made a trip to St. Louis and discovered that Body Worlds was scheduled to be there the week after we left. Narrowly missed seeing that yet again. Another time we were in Chicago and Body Worlds had just left the city the week before we were there. When we went up to Seattle, we thought we might be able to see it because it was in Vancouver BC, but I didn't have a passport and couldn't cross the border. Basically, we had rotten luck.

And then Tyler heard on the radio that the exhibit was going to be at OMSI, right in Portland! I have no idea how we missed it, we looked on the website many times for when it would be in our area for us to go see it, and saw nothing coming near us. By some freak of nature, it came to Portland and I have finally seen it.

And it didn't disappoint. So many awesome things to see! It made me miss the good ol days of anatomy studying all of the muscle group names, bone names etc. And Tyler loved it too. He learned a ton and we both loved spending time together seeing something so fascinating. The best part? There was a real giraffe part of the exhibit. Yep, you turn the corner and suddenly there is a huge, once live, giraffe facing you with the muscles/intestines exposed. Totally fascinating to see such a huge trachea!

Thanks Tyler for the wonderful gift!

Life of Late

Apologies for the poor upkeep of the blog. It seems I do not know how to work full time, run our household, and update a blog. Here are a few little snippets of what has been going on at the Smith household:

 First off, Robyn got her craft on. My awesome visiting teacher gave me the cute little wooden pumpkin in the middle, and then later brought by dessert in mason jars with the orange fabric top to celebrate surviving my first day of work! I thought her craftiness deserved a little display, so I bought fake pumpkins to fill my cookie jar. I bought some pretty ribbon to tie to the top, and repurposed the orange fabric over existing jars of my strawberry jam. And voila! Centerpiece!

 Next on the list, Tyler and I bought a puzzle on a whim. We wanted something to do together that didn't involve one of us losing. Turns out, we both lose. To Chloe. Apparently puzzle pieces =  dog treats every time one falls to the floor. We now have a 990 piece puzzle thanks to our "helpful" dog.

 Next up I made these super scary ghosts for a youth fireside. Basically, they are frozen bananas, cut in half, dipped in white chocolate and given mini choc chip eyes and raisin mouths. I only made the ghosts, not the graveyard. But the whole thing together looks pretty legit, right?

 Today is the first day of November, which means it's gratitude month! I made this lovely gratitude jar (ok, vase) for us to record one thing we are grateful for each day of the month. Then on Thanksgiving, we will read all of the slips and see who wrote something every day. The winner gets a prize! Oh how I love family traditions! (don't you love how I tie a ribbon on something and it suddenly has a purpose and I "made" it? Be impressed with my mad skills)

Lastly we have one of the shelves in my pantry that makes me happy. I made some more applesauce/apple butter this weekend which has caused my jam/spread collection in my pantry to become even bigger. The applesauce in quart jars is not shown, but that part of the pantry makes me smile just as much. And this doesn't even include the freezer jams I have made too!

I will try to be better at updating this here blog, but I'm now working nights. 5 days a week. Not sure how I'll be able to handle this huge change. Any ideas for adjusting to this new schedule? Or things to do while the world sleeps?

Seattle!

A few weekends ago, Tyler and I took a little trip up to Seattle. And being the worst documenter ever, I left my camera home. Bear with me as I overcome my weaknesses.

This is one of three pictures I took the entire weekend. Fail.

We took the train from Portland to Seattle, which was thoroughly enjoyable! We heard from many people that it is a beautiful ride full of gorgeous scenery. We wished that we went a couple of weeks later though, because there were only a few yellow leaves that were turning colors. If we had waited, I'm sure the view would have been even more stunning.

Since we traveled via train, we had no car and became experts in Seattle's modes of public transportation. And walked a ton. We left Friday morning and arrived in Seattle by noon. We basically spent the afternoon walking around Pike's, eating lunch, and grabbing this amazing gelato. Then we walked up to the Space Needle where our hotel was, and checked out all of the cool things in the area like the International Fountain. Then we checked into our hotel, crashed/napped because we were tired of traveling and walking all afternoon.

 This is the amazing gelato. . . nutella and pistachio flavors!

International Fountain via

We then mustered up the courage to walk to Lunchbox Laboratory which was a few (emphasis on a few) blocks away from our hotel. Basically it's a cool hamburger joint and we really enjoyed it! But, for all who know me well, nothing can beat a classic Fuddrucker's burger in my humble-but-oh-so-correct opinion.

The next morning we wanted to see the Pacific Science Center, but it was closed for exhibit cleaning. So we settled on the next best thing: the iMax theater as PSC where we watching an awesome 3D movie about animals. Then we walked on down to the Sculptural Gardens to culture ourselves in modern art. Unfortunately, since it's right on the waterfront, it was extremely windy/rainy. And my husband, ever the thinker, did not bring a jacket with him. We then decided a shopping trip was in order for him to get a jacket since it was such a cold day.

We saw modern art sculptures like this

And this

Basically, we moseyed our way downtown where we went shopping, and saw more sights, again getting more delicious gelato. Probably our favorite place was the Waterfall Gardens. Then we made our way to Safeco Stadium where we went to see the Mariners v. Rangers game. (Of course we went to a baseball game!)

Waterfall Gardens, my picture really doesn't do it justice! Truly a mini oasis in downtown Seattle.

It was a really good game to see, close, but our Rangers won in the end. The only downfall was that Tyler refused to let me buy garlic fries.

We took public transportation back to our hotel room, where we then went swimming at the hotel. Guess who was in there with us? Some random couple from Paris. Yes, I sat next to a native Frenchman in the hot tub. They were visiting Seattle too, and we chatted so they could practice their conversational English. It was really cool!

The next morning we had to make it back to the train station and head home again. We had such a wonderful ride home! There is something about trains that I find highly romantic. And Hogwarts Express-esque. It was wonderful and we fun, relaxing trip! We can't wait to go back again!

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!