New Idea

Okay, before I even explain what this new idea is let me start off by saying that I may not live up to it.

Now that I've got that out there, here it is...

What's Cookin'?

It would kind of be like my "Saturday Love" posts (which, i promise will happen again very soon), but it will be a recipe I tried out that week. I have been wanting to cook more, and since my living arrangements next semester will limit my cooking opportunities to microwave only, I figured I should take advantage of that oven and stove while I can. Hopefully I can do this, I really really want to. Plus, I think Brooke will really like this.

I'll attempt to take pictures of the process, or at least the finished product. We'll see how this goes. :)

So, here's what was cookin' this week:

Taco Soup with tortilla crisps:

I got this recipe from a blog that I read, but I changed it up a bit to suit my roommates and I better.

-1 lb of ground beef

-1/2 yellow onion, diced

-garlic salt (not really sure how much, I just sprinkled it in)

-1 can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained

-1 can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained

-frozen corn (probably about 1 1/2 cups)

-2 cans of diced tomatoes

-1 can of diced green chilies

-1 taco seasoning package

-1 package of ranch salad dressing mix

And here's how you do it:

I cooked it in a crock pot, but I'm sure you could do it on the stove.

Brown the ground beef, and mix in the taco seasoning, onion and garlic salt. Dump your taco seasoned, onion, and garlicky ground beef into the crock pot and then add everything else, putting the ranch dressing packet in last. Stir well. Yeah, it's THAT difficult...you can do it though!

It should cook for a while. I let it simmer for 3 hours while we played in the snow, but I bet 2 hours would have been great.

The tortilla crisps (even more challenging, let me tell ya):

Heat the oven to 400. Cut some corn tortillas into strips, spray a cookie sheet fairly heavily with cooking spray and place the tortilla strips on it. Spray the strips with cooking spray and season with salt. Cook for 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown. I didn't cook the first batch long enough and they were a little bit chewy, but still good!

I also put a little cheese on top of my bowl of soup, and it was yummy!

It was the PERFECT snow day meal.

Let me know what you think about this new idea.

SNOW DAY!

Today was so fun.

It started out normal. I woke up, went to school but only had to stay there for an hour. I came home and Linds and I waited on Julie to come home early from work. Then the playing began...

We went inside to warm up. Allie came home shortly after with groceries to make this Taco soup I have been wanting to make for a while. I got that started, and while it simmered we played more...

It was such a fun day. But my back is really hurting. I wonder why?....

This wasn't even the bad crash.

I love snow. It makes the cold so worth while and fun.

+

I started to type about how weird, and kind of bad this week has been. I deleted it because who wants to read about a bad week? Not me, so why should I write about it? Why am I asking so many questions? Positives of the week!:

-My clinical community rotation went well. I pretty much just attended the classes, and was also got to demonstrate some fancy Lamaze breathing positions. Kind of embarrassing, but mostly funny.

-I got a lot of studying done. I don't think I have ever studied 2 weeks in advance before. What's the thrill in that? There's no adrenaline rush there, but I tried it out and it wasn't too bad.

-Today when I got rear ended nothing bad happened to my car even though the fender of the guy's van who hit me was close to falling completely off. Whew!

-Tonight all of my roommates were home and we went out to dinner. That was a good time.

-The weather is not FREEZING anymore. It was beautiful for most of this week. It's about time, because I was about to turn into an ice cube.

-It's the weekend, and a new, brighter week is on it's way.

Lombardi Gras

So, the Mardi Gras trip was great. I was a little worried that the freakishly cold weather/snow in Texas would put a damper on my trip, but thankfully I flew out of Austin this time, so I didn't get tied up.

We had fun. New Orleans is such a neat, fun, exciting place to be...especially now! Everyone is excited about the Saints, excited about Mardi Gras, and mostly, probably excited that they have the opportunity to eat beignets and crabby jacks every day if they wanted (I would be).

The trip was too short, and coming back was hard. But, this week should go by fast. This week I have my first "community rotation" for clinical. I'll be teaching a breast feeding class, and a prepared child-birth class. I'm anticipating for it to be an interesting experience considering I have never breast fed or given birth and I'm expected to know what I'm talking about.

I'm still in the process of reading the new Donald Miller book that I got for Christmas, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years". I got to read a good chunk of it during the travel part of my trip because I conveniently forgot to pack my Maternity Nursing book. Gosh, it's good. It's gotten me thinking about my story, where I am now, what I'm doing, where I'm going, why I am going there, who I am reaching and influencing, etc, etc. I'm eager to finish it, although that probably wont happen until my Costa Rica trip. All that to say, you should read it. Especially if you like Miller's older stuff, you will especially like this. It still has that laid back Donald Miller feel, but with a little more structure.

Well, that's that. And here are a couple fun pictures from this weekend to wrap this up:

Thanks for tuning in.

Another Countdown Post

I've been studying for my first test that I have in Pediatrics tomorrow almost all day and I'm feeling kinda defeated. So, here is one of my infamous countdown posts to think about future happy things that I am oh so excited about:

Only:

-3 days until I go to New Orleans to see Andrew, and experience Mardi Gras for the first time.

-25 days and my friend Chelsea will be married.

-30 days until COSTA RICA for Spring Break.

-58 days and I'll be 21. Old.

-85 days until I'm a senior in college. (hopefully)

Speaking of that last one there, I was thinking about how this summer will be my last summer as a student. And how next year around this time I will be looking for a real job. CRAZY. I really am getting old. I like it, and I'm not complaining at all, but I'm just so surprised. I'm going to graduate college in a little over a year? It's a little unreal.

Okay, procrastination over!

Super week!

What a great week! A lot of really neat things happened. To name a few...

-I got to see TWO babies born. With both of them, my job was to clean them off, warmed up, all the mucus sucked out of their mouth and nose, then take their first set of vital signs. I don't care how gross babies look when they come out, it's precious. With one of the babies, I got to hand her to her momma for the first time. It was really special. I can officially say that I loved labor and delivery. As a job? Maybe, maybe not. We'll just have to wait and see. (okay, that was way too long of a bullet).

-I forgot my dinner that I packed for clinicals in the car, so I had an excuse to a slice of that glorious scott and white pizza. Yum!

-Robyn and I made some closure on our Costa Rica trip. We're staying at what looks to be a really awesome place on the beach, with a spa that has $25 massages. I will be getting one or two or three of those. Needless to say, I'm pumped.

-I found out where I am going to live next year (crazy turn of events, but exciting! I will explain more later.)

-Just because seeing babies born was seriously so awesome, it gets another bullet. And because that's all I've got.

Now, I'm on my way out the door to go have lunch with Monica for her birthday! Can't wait to hug that girl.

Unrelated side note: I drank my first coke in 3 weeks last night and my stomach has not stopped hurting since. Coincidence? Maybe, but I'm convinced to not drink coke anymore.

One more side note (for Andrew)... Go Saints!

36 days:

In thirty six days this will be me...

Chillin' in a hammock, listening to the waves, finally finishing up the books on my Christmas reading list.

36 days and this will be me....

Actually, there is no way on earth I could do that. I'm not even that flexible in my dreams. But, that's irrelevant. I'll be on a beach, with one of my favorite friends, watching beautiful sunsets, relaxing, soaking up the glory of spring break in Costa Rica.

ahhhh, 36 days.

Jillian kicked my butt

Today I began Jillian Michael's 30 day shred DVD workout.

Let me tell ya, that Jillian is a toughie. This workout hurts. I even took little 5 second breaks every now and again...I would have taken longer but Jillian scares me too bad. Right when you start slacking she says "THESE ABS DON'T COME FREE!". Ha. At one point I started laughing because I was amazed at the pain I was in, and also amazed at how intimidated I was by a lady in the TV. Then I realized that laughing just made it worse, and that if Jillian knew I was laughing at her, I probably wouldn't live to see tomorrow, so I stopped.

After it was over, I sat on the ground; my legs, arms, and ab muscles shaking, feeling defeated. That defeated feeling could have been because during one of the intense jumping jack sections of the workout I hit my hand really hard on the ceiling fan. Or, I guess just because it was a stinking ridiculously hard workout. I thought: "I'm sorry Jillian, but this just might have to be a short relationship, because I'm in some serious pain right now, and I know its good, but really, it doesn't feel anything like good should feel."

I drank some water, sat there and let my muscles shake some more. After about 5 minutes that defeated feeling started wearing off. Don't get me wrong, I was still in pain. In fact, my arms are shaking as I type, I just felt kinda powerful. Then I thought: "Okay Jillian, I'll give you another chance. You're mean, scary, and you make my muscles shake, but LETS DO THIS! (tomorrow).

Hopefully in 30 days my muscles won't be so shaky.

Also, I know you will probably want to know how to achieve that fantastic work-out hairstyle I've got going on. It's really quite simple, if you are interested, I'll give you some instruction.