Change of Plans

So I misunderstood Jessica. I thought she didn't want me to post my list. On the contrary. She thinks I'm being a punk for not posting it. So it's on this newly-created blog. 

www.littlehappymakers.blogspot.com

And if you make a list (which would be awesome!), post it as a comment!

Update on the List Thing

There's a couple reasons why I'm not posting my list.
First, I'm stuck on #67. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
And second, it's a little less stressful and more exciting for me if it's a personal thing, even though I will list some of my favorites as I do them. (And I'd still love if y'all would like to post yours!!)
And I'll list 5 of my favorites right now, even, though, really, that's hard to choose. (Lots of us started a list while we were camping. Ariana is at 90 now. I have crossed off three, so now I have to backdate it, as getting my fishing license was on there.) And, p.s, Jessica has updated hers and it's coming along splendidly.
5 Favorites:

See the Grand Canyon

Go Skinny Dipping

Kiss a Stranger (stolen, so I'll do 6)

Finish "The Audacity of Hope"

Eat at 5 new restaurants in Phoenix

Hike Phoenix's Camelback

Why I am not a cosmetologist

My mom and my sister are both cosmetologists. There are so many reasons why I am not. 

For example,

• My mom for many years has told me when I need a perm, haircut, or highlights. I am generally not aware of this information.
• In February of 2007, I flat-ironed my hair for the first time ever. It was the first day I had worn my hair straight since 1994. 
• I get bored sitting through my own perms twice a year. I could never inflict this torture on others. (Poking them with needles, however, is another story.)
• It terrifies me. That whole chopping away with no pattern thing. I would be horribly, terribly, awful at it. And that is the truth.
• And today, I curled my hair with rollers. I told Candice my plan, and she said, "That sounds like a mess." I thought it sounded fun. It turned out more like a mess. Kind of cute for about an hour. Not so much like the magazines all say "large, velcro rollers" should make your hair look. Oh well. At least I'm branching out!

A Rundown of my Fluctuating Temperature

So...I'm addicted to taking my temperature when I'm sick. Seriously. What else is a person supposed to do when they're lying in bed all day? And I seem to be sick a lot recently. (And I've been working 4 days a week, so sorry everyone for my slacking posting). Here's last week:

Worked on Mon, Tues, and Wed. Slight Cough. 

Thursday- 101 Fever. Dry hacking cough. 

Friday- 100.8 Fever. Got up and went to the mall anyway. I had a coupon to Victoria's Secret, one to Banana Republic, and one to Express, and they were all about to expire!! Went to a super-fun wedding of my co-worker Larry with Doug (wearing my new shirt from Banana Republic), drugged on DayQuil. 

Saturday- 99.4 Took some Robitussin and went to work. Realized soon afterwards that Robitussin makes me drowsy and spent the next 5 hours fighting off sleep. 

Sunday- go to church on 3 hours of sleep. Go home and lay down. Fever 102.1 Sleep for 30 hours, waking occasionally to brush my teeth and take more Robitussin. 

Monday- 98.6 at 9:30pm. 

Being sick is annoying!!!!!!

Rhubarb Explosion

So our guest list changes a lot. People sign up and forget and make other plans so we end up calling around a lot. Especially the week of spring break. So our guests for this week were: Doug, who likes rhubarb and thus secured an invite, Madison, who actually remembered, and Emily and John, who I had met that day at church.
I had three new foods yesterday:

• Jerusalem Artichokes (look like ginger root, texture of potatoes, taste like artichoke hearts)
  
• Truffle Oil (Remember the movie No Reservations where she buys truffles for $2200 a pound? We were a little worried about how much exactly truffle oil was going to put us back, but at $14 for a little bottle of "olive oil infused with white truffle aroma", we did okay. (It was still really strong!)
  
• Rhubarb. My mom says I just don't remember having this as a child, but I don't think I ever did. 

The menu consisted of: 

Jerusalem Artichoke soup drizzled with truffle oil

Pot Roast (which Brad did a great job at) with Baked Yukon Gold potatoes stuffed with bacon, sage, garlic, an anchovy filet, and lemon zest. Stuffing all this stuff into these potatoes would have been a sweet picture that I just didn't think about. 

Rhubarb Fool: Pureed boiled rhubarb with sugar layered with homemade whipped cream.

So once in a while we have a sweet story to go along with the preparation. Usually it involves some kind of smoke or melting. This week, I poured the chopped boiled rhubarb directly from the stove into the blender and hit puree. The lid exploded off and I was covered it searing hot rhubarb. Brad was like, "I Don't Know What to Do!" I was like, "Close your eyes so I can take my shirt off; this is burning me!!" I was covered in pink from head to toe and ran into the shower. It did somehow come out of my clothes (which were white and pale yellow. ahhh!) and the burn on my chest is almost gone. We didn't capture the excitement of the mess, but here's a picture of the burn and the party. (The food was great, by the way :o) ) My face looks more red, but that's my sunburn, not the food. 

I LOVE CAMPING- Kayaks

This is my friend Marshall. He had to leave before I got there, but he looks hot in this picture, so it made it to the blog. 

Can two people really fit in a kayak? I know this question has been on your minds, so let me assure you, yes, oh yes, they can. If one of them has really long legs and the other really short ones. Tyler Miller (our cute friend) and I managed to squeeze into one while Shirley rode another one, and everyone else was in the canoe. We actually had to backtrack to get two more people (Brad and Ariana were so tired!) and bring them to a little island for a picnic. (Ariana has sweet pictures of this on her blog.) The picnic was fun, and we are all now super-sunburned, despite sunscreen, and headed home. This time Brad decided to kayak alone. About 5 minutes into our ride, I look over and see Brad in the water, hanging on to his kayak. So Tyler and I row over and help his freezing little butt out of the water and back into his kayak. Now, this water is not warm, which I experienced all the way there, as "wave" after wave splashed into our boat and all over my shorts. But it's not quite as cold as Idaho, and Brad was all right. His phone and camera were both in his pocket, but he took out the batt

eries, took them apart at home, and we found out last night that they both work. yeah! 

You can tell that I depended a lot on other people for this trip because, although I remembered everything they asked me to bring, I forgot for myself:

• sandals
• a flashlight
• a pocketknife
• a sleeping bag

What the heck was I thinking. Luckily, the only thing I really missed were the sandals. I spent a lot more time in bare feet than I really wanted to. 

The rest of the day was spent just hanging around. Brad and I went fishing on the lake at sunset, which was fun. And 6 of us all snuggled together in the tent for the night. 

Saturday morning we just headed out. 

The thing is this: Getting away from it all takes longer here in Phoenix than in Idaho. I drove for about 2 1/2 hours before the highways seemed any kind of empty. Highway 82, however, is beautiful. If I could wiggle my nose, and just fly down that road a couple times a week, I would love it so much. Next time I go to Patagonia lake, I need to make more time for the stars. 

It was a beautiful trip, and a very good time. 

I LOVE CAMPING- Getting There

So, for a little more detailed history on this camping trip from a less self-centered perspective, you can head over to Ariana's blog. As it is, I'm just going to tell about the days that I was there, the horror of getting there, and really, the loveliness of the whole thing. 

So this last week I worked Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights and then left on Thursday afternoon to head down to Patagonia Lake, a quaint little area about 10 miles from the border. Yep. That's right. The Mexican border. Close enough to Mexico that about an hour before you get there all the signs are in kilometers, which kind of pissed me off. I think us U.S. citizens should be able to read our own freakin' street signs as long as we are in our own country. But whatever. 

So all during my Thursday morning sleep, I keep getting text messages from Brad.

"Could you bring more wood and ice?"

"Ariana needs some lotion."

"And pillows."

"And could you bring a book if you haven't left yet?"

I finally wrote him back, "And a massage therapist, a hammock, and some bon bons?"

He responded, "Yes. Bonbons. Good idea. I didn't even think of that!" :o)

I ended up leaving about 5, which was about 2 hours later than planned, but was okay. I had my little map from googlemaps and headed down the 19 south to Nogales. Brad had texted me to take the 83 to the 82, but I didn't see any signs for that so I just headed down my way. Ariana and Brad called to check on me, and Ariana said everybody gets lost on the 19. I just said I'd be really careful and follow the map exactly. So after about 5 minutes of driving through a crazy rural hilly neighborhood with unlit street signs, I find Pendleton road from my map and turn right. As I go to follow it around, I run into a big white gate that says "Park Closed." Hmm...this was a bad sign, as I still had about 20 more miles to go before my arrival. So I backtracked to a Truck stop and told one of the very friendly Mexicans there my dilemma. I told him about Pendleton road, to which he politely replied, "You ain't goin' nowhere on that road, homes." Sweet. So he gave me directions taking the "scenic route." And I only had to stop for directions one more time, at which time, I was told "there's a little trick to it." Whatever!!! So I finally finished this 3 hour trip in 5 sweet hours. And got there at 10 o'clock and then couldn't find Brad-o for about 15 minutes and almost went crazy. But, I was there. I was camping. And life was good. 

Keeping me sane during this trip was 92.9 The Mountain, a Tucson radio station that made it all almost worth it. From 8pm-11pm, they play Acoustic Sunset, so during all my being lost adventures, I was blessed to hear from the likes of Ziggie Marley, Ryan Adams, Dave Matthews Band, Imogene Heap, and felt a little like I was in heaven. Listening to this station (almost) all the way home, I only changed the station once, which never ever happens in my world. 

You can listen to it here:

http://www.929themountain.com

101 Great Great Ideas

So Jessica may kill me for this one, but I really don't think she will so I'm going ahead with it. The other day I linked from one of her comments on mine to her blog, shocked that I didn't know it even existed. 

What I found was an inspiring and exciting list of 101 things she planned to do in 1001 days. Her inspiration came from this website: 

http://triplux.com/dayzero/default.asp?view=addyourlist, which I thought was called the Happiness Project but it's not. (The Happiness Project, it turns out, is much more boring. I will, however, be referring to my list as that personally.) 

And the list is entirely her own creation, and I adore it. Now, this blog is not one built for us. It's built for her; not for us to constantly stalk and comment on. :o) But I would definitely check it out. 

So far I have 25 things written on mine and am waiting for Brad to come home so he can start one too and help me think of some more things. 

It seems like a good way to break down "making yourself a better person" into manageable chunks. And it also seems to have the potential to up the excitement ante. 

Have fun!

Call it what you wanna call it; Maybe I'm a Workaholic

So the truth of the matter is that they pay nurses pretty well around these here parts. And they pay us even better (a lot better) if we work extra shifts. But usually extra shifts aren't available. Or they call me mid-dinner party, while I'm in Boise, or when all my scrubs are dirty and my house is a disaster. 

But I happened to be really productive last weekend and got all my bills paid and my house cleaned and was just in a good mood. And I had no upcoming plans when they asked me to pick up extra shifts. So I worked 5-12's this week, Monday thru Friday. And it was nice. Now, they called me this morning to work tonight and I was like, "Are you kidding me?" Because I had to stay an hour and a half this morning to get everything done. And it was beat!

But this week was good; I had so many good learning experiences. On Wednesday, I sent my third patient (ever) to the ICU. She was having some trouble breathing. It made me realize how important it is to check on patients often, and to listen very carefully to their lungs to listen for changes (And lungs can be a pain in the butt to describe well. Or even hear at all sometimes.) Sometimes it's easy to get complacent on our floor because everyone is so stable. I was mostly worried about how much she was eating because she felt like she was getting weak. (Lots of times that's important!)

The last two days I worked on a different floor with more cancer patients. I really liked my group assignment. I learned to hang albumin, which is a lot like trying to get syrup to flow easily through a tiny straw without drying up or getting air bubbles- kind of difficult. I saw how to use a implanted catheter (the blood kind, not the urine kind), which somehow I had never seen. And I took care of a guy with a trach, which I also hadn't done before. And last night, I had 6 patients for the first time. And gave my 3rd blood transfusion. 

The week made me think a little about an article in Oprah this month, about how women who are CEOs now never said "no" to an opportunity when they were first starting out because they had to "pay their dues." The thing is, putting in that much time really has the potential to give you more confidence in your position, improve yourself, and practice little things that may get overlooked otherwise. It's good to see how a place functions all week, instead of the three things that are there. 

It gave me a little more love for my job, and even though I'm glad for my day off, I'm really glad I did it. 

7 Days of Running

So last week I decided to run 3 miles around the lake for seven days straight. Now, I've run before, but never that consistently that far. And I was in a really good mood. This is the run-down of how it all went down.

Day 1- Feeling higher than air, I start runnng. Decide to include "A" mountain in the run. Walk the whole thing. Walk at least a quarter of the 3 miles. Get home. Brad says I look like I'm going to die of heat exhaustion. Consider than running may have ruined my good mood instead of enhancing it. 

Day 2- About halfway through get painful uterine-type cramp. Puke. About 5 times. Sit down for 5 minutes until it goes away. Run the rest with no problems, actually. Be grateful body forgets pain so quickly. 

Day 3- Learn to listen to my body a little more. Slow down and walk a bit just before the P.O.P (Point of Puke). Finish the run with no problems. 

Day 4- Absolutely do not feel like doing this today; consider lifting weights instead, but remember my goal and head out. Body is finally getting used to this. Run entire thing no problems. Don't feel like I'm going to die. Just feel really really good. 

Next Day- Is Fast Sunday. Decide running without eating or drinking is a bad bad idea. Running after eating salmon for dinner- also a bad idea. Don't run.

Day 5- They are painting my building and taped up my car while I was asleep. ipod is inside. Run 3 miles for the first time without music, surprisingly successfully. Feel great. Consider becoming one of those people who run 3 miles every morning. Like it's casual.

Day 6- Gorgeous Day. 3 Sailboats and rowers on the lake. Run is again pretty good; time myself. 28 minutes. Wonder how long it will be before I run 6 miles a day. Check myself into a mental hospital. Just kidding. But really....

Next Day- I oversleep and do a circuit workout in my living room before work. 

Day 7- My legs kind of hurt today. It's a little harder than I really expected. The breeze is blowing so I chalk it up to wind resistance and keep going. AND FINISH!! 21 miles in 9 days. :o)!!

Big Fish

This was another dinner party that went wonderfully. The fish was from Whole Foods, and was beautiful. 5lbs. of beautiful fish head. Ariana and I went to get it last night. I called because I needed about a 6lb. salmon. They only had a 12lb salmon. Unfortunately, 1- I am not rolling in that kind of money. 2- We only had 6 people coming over for dinner, and I didn't think everybody needed 2 pounds of fish. Brad was the least excited about this meal of all. He was like, "I cannot believe you are going to cook a whole fish. I do not want a whole fish. That's terrible." And it was wonderful. So so good. K-so this is how the meal went. 

Appetizer: Blueberry Salad on Butter Lettuce with toasted almonds & feta.

Dinner: Lemon & Asparagus Risotto with Salmon stuffed with fennel, tomatoes, parsley, and thinly sliced lemons. One of the guys said it was the best salmon he had ever had in his life. Cooked so perfectly. :o) (I love this Naked Chef cookbook so far.)

Dessert: Totally cheated and made Lemon Bars out of a box. The Krusteaz kind. And they were great. I had two, but I should have just had one 'cause that gave me a little tummy ache. Oh well. 

So...about company...The girl with red hair is Taunalee. She's 28, too, and was so fun to talk to a little bit. I really didn't know her very well before this party, even though we are in the RS presidency together, so that was fun. Also, we all got to talking about the Bel Air and everyone wanted to ride in it. So we went on a few mile ride and it was a blast. 

Such a fun party. :o)

I WAS PEGGED TO BE RANDOM

So... Jeffrey Benson tagged me to come up with random things about myself. I'm sure I will add to this in the future, but here goes.

1. I am addicted to reading magazines. My ideal job would be to read or proofread magazines.

2. I have never really wanted to be a nurse. I am excited to be a Nurse Practitioner. I think sometimes about going back to be a dentist, which I wanted to do for 8 years. But I won't. 

3. I love every person I've dated for more than a month. I always will. 

4. I have dated an extremely disproportionate number of guys whose names start with J. Two Josh. One James. One Jake. One Jay. 

5. I love 80's Madonna. 

6. I have a lot of journals, and I could read them a million times. 

7. I used to work at Jiffy Lube. 

8. (Jeff mentioned that he's narcissistic. At Jiffy Lube, one of the guys made fun of me from looking at myself so much in the windows. It haunts me to this day. Because I hate catching myself doing it. But I think I very quickly deteriorate from looking nice to looking disasterous, and I like to know at what point that is.)

9. My first kiss was at 19. My first great make-out was at 21. That was the "funnest" night of my entire life. 

10. If I could spend all my money picking out perfect gifts for people I love, I would. It's my absolute favorite thing. Okay, just one of my favorites. 

11. I'm really not that great of a driver. 

12. I've been in about 6 wrecks. 

13. I was a horrible cook before my Williams-Sonoma healthy kitchen cookbook set. 

14. I always wonder how I spend money so well. And by well I mean often.

15. I don't remember the last time I was as completely happy as when I got back from Boise last week. 

16. I love to have fun. I love it. I am generally not really good at coming up with the ideas of "what to do." But once I am somewhere, I sure can make it really really fun. I do wish I could come up with the ideas sometimes.

17. I hate the hobbies question on stuff. I hang out. I shop. I organize my life. I spend too much time on my blog. I don't have "hobbies."

18. I grew up in Florida, Texas, and Idaho. I really like this, and I hope I can expose my kids to a bunch of life things. 

19. I love manly men. You know, the truck, the tools. I need that in my life. It's like I think I can cover everything else good on my own. But I need the truck for camping and I need someone to show me where the rear main seal is and adjust the temperature on my water heater. Usually these men are associated with some type of beer. This may be my problem. 

20. I have really good memories of camping as a child, but it's been a while. 

21. My brother and I are weirdly alike, and I love it. 

22. I'm the only Mormon female I know who has performed a wedding ceremony. 

23. I own a lot of alcohol for cooking that I never drink. I bought it at a liquor store with my old roommates and felt so weird.

24. People often say, "I have never met anyone like you before ever." They say this in a good way, and it makes me happy for the weird little things I do, like buy a 1965 Bel air....or go to 5 grocery stores for dinner....or get a boat permit for my inflatable raft to hang out in the middle of Tempe Town Lake at 9 o'clock at night. 

25. I had major food issues in high school...like a lot of girls. Ate too little, worked out too much. Cried 'cause I thought I was "so fat"... and now I am not like that, eat like a normal person, and weigh exactly the same. To the pound. 

26. I adored junior high. Turning 12 was one of the most exciting days of my life.

27. There was a year of my life where I ate a jar of peanut butter a week. This has slowed down slightly. 

28. This blog started because I am very particular about what brands of stuff I use. I've used the same toner since I was 12. (Nivea Visage Moisturizing). I fell in love with milk from a small organic dairy in Boise. I've used the same body wash for about 8 years. And I went through about 10 face washes until I finally bought one I liked enough to buy it again. 

29. My family laughs a lot. I don't know how to get along with people who don't make fun of me a little bit. I might laugh too much at the hospital, but I know that laughing helps a lot of situations. 

30. I got my first smile lines at 23. 

31. I don't have facebook.

32. I love working nights; mostly because I don't ever have to get up at 5:30.

33. The only bones I've broken were my collar bones at the age of 3 from falling off the bed. 

34. ....but I am a klutz. I have a lot of bruises that I don't remember getting. I know I ran into something; I just don't notice anymore. 

34. I'm scared of breaking someone's heart. 

35. Clueless is probably my favorite movie. 

36. I was one of those teenage girls that made Titanic such a huge success. I saw it 4 times in the theater. And I think 2 since. I still have one of the ticket stubs.

37. I dated a guy 15  years older than me. We are still friends. (In fact, you can link to his blog :o) )

38. I get hit on a lot more by non-LDS guys than LDS guys. oh well.

39. I recycle. 

Who On Earth Posts an Entire Wedding Ceremony Online?

Who gives this woman away?
Her family and I do
We are gathered here today to witness the wedding of Jessica Spencer and Nate McIntyre. A little over a year ago, I had the unique experience of being Jessica’s roommate as this relationship unfolded. I saw the sweet little things Nate did for Jessica- from the Skittles on our door to making sure every detail of her birthday was perfect. I saw Jessica freak out trying to make sure Nate wasn’t going overboard, and I saw her risk her life by going Mountain Biking with Nate.
And I saw, “I don’t know about this” turn into “This might be it.” And it is.
Now, I’m standing here today as a single woman who has yet to be married. So the advice I offer is from others whom I trust, as well as a few things I’ve noticed and appreciated in my life concerning a healthy and loving marriage.
By taking this step, Jessica and Nate, you are promising to each other that through this lifetime of joys and struggles, the two of you will always be there for each other to rely on. You have learned a lot about the other’s personality over the last year. Nate, you know how often Jessica needs her time to herself, which is significantly less than before she met you, and Jessica, you know now to just let Nate do his own thing and not stress about the things he will inevitably keep stressing about. And you both know each other enough to make this commitment. You have discovered by now that the person standing next you is not perfect. But you have both decided that this person is perfect for you.
The person beside you is the one you have chosen to love, adore, and cherish above all others. There are reasons for this that you will continue to discover as the years go by. The years will change the person you marry today. You will realize facets of each others’ personalities you never knew existed. Savor this opportunity to grow and develop as a couple.

Remember always that the most successful marriages are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, and work.

❒ In difficult times, turn to each other and use these opportunities to find similarities in your beliefs. Turn together to Someone higher than yourselves that will guide you in strengthening both your family and your relationship.
❒ Be quick to forgive each other for the heartaches the other may cause, both the unintentional and the occasional intentional.
❒ Always show respect for each other. Be quick to praise and even slower to criticize, especially in public.
❒ Look for small ways to show your love for one another in the small things you do and say, as you do now.
❒ Be the sympathetic ear you spouse can come to with his or her troubles. Be willing always to put their needs before your own.
❒ And Commit yourselves to working hard, both in your careers and in your other responsibilities.
I know this relationship has already had its share of “talks.” You both have a tremendous capacity for these discussions. This is not the end of them. Continue to openly communicate with each other. Reflect upon the path your marriage is taking you and be willing to make the daily changes to ensure it leads you in the right direction.
And Lastly, remember that the sacrifices you will make for this companionship will bless your lives immensely as you share the deepest and sweetest emotions of this life with each other.

Nate and Jessica Now have a few words to say to each other. [Nate and Jess said their vows, which were just perfect.]
Jess
Nate
Do you Have your Rings? Please repeat after me.
Nate, please accept this ring as a symbol of my promises to you and a reminder of my devotion to you
I am honored to call you my husband.
(Repeat.)
Jessica Ann Spencer, do you take Nathan McIntyre to be your lawfully wedded husband to love, hold, and to cherish for the rest of your lives?
(Repeat)
By the power vested in me as the High Magistrate of the Church of Serendiptious Love, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Nate, you may kiss your bride.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Mr.& Mrs. Nathan McIntyre.