Twas the day before the day before Christmas...

Hi y'all!

It has been awhile, but there is not too much new going on. I have all of my Christmas shopping done, so I have been laying around on the sofa a lot watching movies!

My husband and I decided to forgo the big holiday meal and have pizza on Christmas! That really takes a lot of pressure off regarding grocery lists and prep time...I was just not into it this year.

My Mom is coming to visit, but not until next week. She is spending Christmas with 2 of my sisters.

The new year will bring some change for me. I landed a job in the Critical Care flex pool at the hospital, so the carefree days are over come January 10th! However, I am grateful to be able to get a job in this economy. The sooner I get back to work and my husband's business gets rolling, the sooner we can buy some property and build a house :O)

My Christmas tree and fireplace turned out super cute this year but I have yet to take a picture. I will have to do that before it gets ripped up on Saturday!

Publix vs Kroger

Having to find a new grocery store was troubling for me. First, I went to Publix, which is 3 miles from my house. It was nice, clean and easy to navigate. However, they do not carry Wheaties, perogies or non-frosted blueberry Pop-tarts. These are serious grocery violations.

Then there is Kroger, which is 7 miles away. Deluxe, millions of choices, 3 different sizes of shopping carts and Wheaties. They also did not carry perogies or the appropriate Pop-tart. And the layout is confusing!

I feel like you should get your cart, enter moving toward the right and proceed directly into produce. In this Kroger, there is no clear path to traffic and the dairy is the first thing you come to...and then frozen foods. Weird?

So despite the weirdness I went with Kroger...for the Wheaties.

But last week something happened. I went back to Publix, selected a cart that had a very smooth ride, and proceeded in toward the right....into the prepared foods section and then to produce. It was such a wonderful, familiar feeling.

Now, I choose Publix. The carts are ALL easily pushed, the layout is welcoming and shopper friendly, the store-brand "toaster pastries" are just as good....and on a bottom shelf, in a dimly lit corner of the freezer section, was a little box of perogies. Welcome home :O)

disclaimer: For the record, my favorite grocery store of all time is Harris Teeter. This lovely east coast chain has direct produce entry, Wheaties and a vast Pop-tart selection. They also have the best in-house pizza ever created. This may be the only thing about Virginia that I miss.

Twinkle, twinkle....

So being the uber athlete I am (HA!) I decided that I would mix it up a little and run the stadium stairs. Luckily, I chose the little city baseball stadium and NOT the AU arena. After a few flights, I literally started seeing stars! ****SPARKLING****EVERYWHERE**** I stopped and laid down on the bleachers until the feeling passed. It went by pretty fast and I felt good....until I went to sit up and my hair stuck to the bleacher! UGH! I think it was a spilled Coke...I'm going to go with that :O/

On that note, the workout was over and I drove straight home and got in the shower. I felt contaminated and fat. Now I am watching The Biggest Loser and eating peanut butter cookies with mini chocolate chips....very disordered, I know.

I would also like to register my complaint with the person in charge of the time change...it is officially crap. No one gets any extra sleep and the early sunset is depressing. Boo Winter!!

On the opposite note, how much do we love the Patriot Guard? These are the Veterans (and others) who provide escorts for the families of soldiers and sailors who have died. They protect them against hate groups that protest at funerals with horrible signs and hate filled chants. Thank you Patriot Guard!!!

Don't I know you?

Hi everybody! It has been forever

since I have posted, but it has not

been for lack of material :O)

Of course we had the big move at

the beginning of September and

it took a while to get settled. I am

not a big fan of change, even if it is

something that I really want.

I have finally mastered the hills around here and have gotten

back up to my regular distances with my walking. I usually

go about 5 days a week, between 2-4 miles with lots of hills.

I look like a sweaty mess!

For the last few weeks I have been going over to the

university on Sundays and walking on campus. Just being

able to walk around (even through the hot mess after game

days) fills me with unbridled JOY! The pic above was from

the first game...people were kind of looking at me weird

because I was practically crying the whole time and taking

pictures of everything! I loved it!

I have not been using my time wisely and trying really hard

to find a job. I mean, I am busy all day long, but I have to

say that sleeping, walking my dog and working around

the house have been much more enjoyable than working

11p-7a 4 nights a week in the ER. I have also been cooking

every night to keep my husband distracted from the fact that

I do not have a job yet...so far, so good :O)

However, I have been doing work to keep up with my

continuing education credits and talking with a few people

I know at the hospital, so my days of leisurely living will probably

come to an end soon :O(

I have also been keeping up with reading all of the blogs

and trying to comment more. So while you all may not

have been seeing me, I have been seeing you and enjoying

visiting every day!

The death of me!

Hey y'all,

Since about February, I have been striving to exercise about 4-5 days a week in order to have more energy and tone up if at all possible. I started slow with no set ground rules. I walked anywhere from 1.5 to 3 miles either around the lake or in an office park near my house...fine, no problem. I lived in coastal Virginia with an elevation of ZERO! Not a hill in sight.

However, now that I live in Alabama, it is a whole different story! I can barely make a mile because of all of the hills! I can hardly go up because my legs are burning so bad and then I have to stop at the top to catch my breath. As a nice addition, it is about 90 degrees with 80% humidity at 7 o'clock in the morning!

I am so happy to be in Alabama, but the hills are gonna kill me!!!

Remembering...

Like most Americans, I am thinking about Sept.11, 2001 and what happened on that day. I was a student nurse at clinical on the Ortho unit. I was helping my patient get a bath when the first plane crashed. I was so nervous about my patient and then suddenly so frightened I remember going completely numb.

Then a page for me was called overhead. When I picked up the phone it was my husband. He said, "Did you see what happened? We are activating. I won't be home tonight and I probably won't be home for a long time."

I was frozen. I am normally very level headed in a crisis and I just couldn't move. I just turned and went back to my patient. The television was on and I heard about the second plane. I was completely spaced out. The wife of my patient told me I look pale and helped me to sit down. My instructor and my friend Patty knew my husband was in the Navy and they came to find me. My teacher told Patty to drive me home.

When I got home there were all of these messages from my friends and family wondering about Robert and offering support. I just lay down on the kitchen floor and cried like a baby.

I didn't hear from Robert for 3 days. They never did deploy that day, but they were at the ready in defense of our country.

I am lucky. Robert has spent the lion's share of 20 years on sea duty or shore commands with attached billets. He has been gone for much longer than he was ever home. But he DID come home, and that is what I am grateful for and remembering today.

The DMV

In the spirit of being a

good citizen, by husband and I scoured the DMV website and prepared

all of our documents in order to get our car tags and driver's license.

We got up early and went to the license window first. Everything was going

well for me right up until the end. She asked me to see my marriage

certificate. What? She told me that since i had a previous license in Alabama

(20yrs ago) under my maiden name that I would need proof of marriage.

OMG!!! I had my Virginia license, social security card, military ID and passport

and I still had to turn around and go home to get the license.

Meanwhile, my husband gets in line for the tags with titles, insurance and ID

and they told him he can only get a tag for the car that is physically at the DMV

because they have to verify the VIN. Well at the time, none of our cars were

there because I was going to get the marriage license!

I know they are following the rules, but I cannot believe this! So we will have

to take our other cars (my husband has a beater truck for recreation in addition

to our "real" cars) back to the DMV on another day...after I have gotten rid of

this migraine and can get my courage back up. DMV FAIL :O(