Posts About personal

christmas with kids & this year’s plan

December 20, 2013

It’s such a strange transition to go from being the child during Christmas, to being the parent. It feels like a lot of pressure! Meredith is two and a half now, and I feel like this is our last “practice” year before she will really start caring about and remembering everything. Her first Christmas she was only five months old, and last year she had a pretty bad case of roseola so was down for the count, poor girl. This year she is two and a half. She likes all the decorations, and if you ask her what she wants for Christmas she will say “candy.” But I still don’t think she really understands anything. So I’ve been trying to…
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completed bucilla stocking!

December 18, 2013

You guys I am super excited about this. I finally completed the stocking I was making for my niece! Let me tell you again the reason I was making this. Everyone on my husband’s side of the family has a different one of these beautiful stockings (by Bucilla) handmade by his grandmother who the kids called Gigi. When we married into the family she even made one for us. This year we were all so sad when Gigi was diagnosed with two advanced forms of cancer and passed away within a few months. I personally really looked up to her and she is the one that gave me her sewing machine and taught me how to use it. She made…
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day in the life of an infusion nurse

December 16, 2013

I have another post about my job as a chemo infusion nurse for you! This one is a little less serious, as I wanted to give some detail about what my job actually involves. This might seem way too detailed, but I assure you I am summarizing vast amounts of activity here and only hitting the high points! It’s a busy place. The following took place on a Monday, and it actually was one of my less busy days. One of our infusion suites. 7:30 // I arrive and Patient #1 is there, to get the chemo regimen ABVD. I access her port and draw labs. We were not sent new orders from the doctor’s office, so I start making…
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how we are making our money matter

December 13, 2013

It’s the end of the year, which means Christmas shopping and budgeting for next year. For us, it also means that pretty soon we are going to be adding another child to our household and all the costs (*cough* daycare *cough*) that go with it. I have been thinking about money and finances a lot lately: how to save it, where to spend it, and how to make it matter. It’s a never-ending battle. We’ve been working on paring down our spending for awhile in anticipation of a drastic increase in expenses. Here are some things we’re doing to save: Took a look at all of our recurring bills. Canceled or cut back on the non-necessary expenses (cable, subscriptions). Changed…
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baked oatmeal

December 11, 2013

Hey let’s have a rare post about food from me, shall we? I always struggle with what to eat for breakfast. It has to be fairly filling (enough to get me through at least 4 hours without my stomach growling), easy to make or heat up in the morning, and portable because I eat on my drive. For a long time I ate refrigerator oatmeal which really is delicious and perfect for my requirements, but I ran into a big problem with it once I got pregnant and that is that I can no longer tolerate very much dairy! Refrigerator oatmeal calls for milk AND Greek yogurt which is just too much. So then I tried making ahead breakfast sandwiches…
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