Just Frozen.....

Everyone is talking about the winter storm that is making it’s way to the Dallas metroplex. My morning shows have been interrupted with constant weather updates....ughhh! 

Oh, and I made the mistake and went to the store. Target was overrun with people stocking up on ice scrapers, food, movies and beer…lots of BEER. People are rushing and running thru the isles to make sure they have enough spaghettios, potato chips, Tyson nuggets, or whatever else they need to get them through the cold weekend. Hot chocolate shelves are empty and the lines were super long. It was a madhouse, reminded me of my Florida days preparing for the next big hurricane!!! But this is not a hurricane, it's ice. All I wanted was to get some salad dressing for my antipasto salad and look for a new book to read, on my only day off. Boy, did I pick the wrong day. 

School will most likely be cancelled so, the only people who should be freaking out and running around in circles are the parents facing this inevitable snow day, home with the kids!!!

Fortunately and unfortunately for me, I will be working tomorrow. I will have the opportunity to drive 10 mph all the way to work behind some really bad drivers. Talk about chaos, the roads are going to be a mess!  

People, this is north Texas, we get ice every year!And even if we give it a catchy name like “Snowpocalypse” or “Arctic Blast”, it’s still just ice and snow. RELAX and be safe. :)

Sleepless in Scrubs

I missed another school event last night…because I had to work. I rolled into my front door at 9am because I had to stop and get groceries before I could go home. If I am fortunate, I will sleep like a rock, hard and solid. But, when the kids get home from school, they will be on their own again...struggling to stay quiet so I can sleep. When I finally awaken, I will stumble through a shower and make my way downstairs. I’ll attempt to listen to my kids tell me about their day, trying to retain what they are saying. Unfortunately a lot of it goes in one ear and out the other:(

Coffee. Where’s the coffee…

My husband gets home, I tell him what he needs to know about my day: I didn’t touch the laundry, I didn’t unload the dishwasher, dinner is not ready, and the kids just started on their homework…oh, and we need more coffee. He nods, gives me a hug and out the door I go.

My drive to work consists of some kind of caffeine drinking and clearing the fog from my head. What will be in store for me tonight? A high census? Call-ins? I stress myself out before I even get to work…..

Where am I going with this: well, I write this post as a tribute to the night nurses that I have had the pleasure to work with. Although I am jokingly called a traitor for accepting a day position, I can’t help but feel a bit sad for leaving such a great group of nurses, some of whom I can call my friends.

The conversations that go on at night are unforgettable.

At night, we get the crazies, the spontaneous labors, the A.M. scheduled c-sections in labor. Everything is a surprise. We are sleepy, but we are working hard. We are overlooked, but we are faithful. We are lonely, but united. We are irritable, but knowledgeable. We are independent, but deeply depend on each other. We work in the dark, but our humors are light. Our stomachs are bloated and our bladders are full. Life goes on without us, and we go on when life settles. We function in darkness, even in the daylight. We have found ourselves driving into our driveways with no memory of ever driving home.

Night shift friends, you’ve made me laugh when I’ve been at my very worst and helped me transition into the nurse that I am. When I see you, at change of shift, please know that I am forever grateful for you. XOXO 

Chalk Paint Challenge: Day One

So, I started painting my table today......
I can't tell you how many times I had to stop and check Pinterest for tips and tutorials, again and again! This chalk paint stuff is not as 'fool proof' as I thought, at least for me. Or maybe I shouldn't have assumed that it would be extremely easy.
I am painting an antique white table to an Old White color, easy right? not. The two white colors seem to be fighting with each other and I couldn't seem to completely cover the original paint. After about half an hour of freaking out, I figured that I would just apply a second coat afterwards, and that should take care of it. Well....it worked but then I was having trouble with streaking and dripping and because the paint dries so fast, my second coat was painted on with a half hardened-bristle brush.
*note to self: buy more than one paint brush!!!
I went ahead and finished the second coat and put my only paintbrush to soak.
I'm done for today, I need to pick up a few things from the Home Depot tonight and hopefully finish by the end of the weekend.
Right now, my table legs are painted and appear very 'chalky' but the streaks are less noticeable and I finally got the original paint color covered up. The clear wax should seal the paint and make it look less powdery (is that even a word?).  I'm still not 100% happy with this project but, hoping for better results tomorrow.

Tips from me:
~this paint is easier to use if you want a distressed look
~get good brushes and more than ONE
~be careful painting on a thick coat, dripped paint dries so fast and you'll have to chip it off or sand it down to fix it.
~it looks so much better after it dries
~the paint will chip and scratch very easily until you seal it with wax
~do more research than I did, before you start ;)

Adventures in Painting....

I do not like to paint.

Now repeat another 100 times and you may be a bit closer to understanding the depths that I will go to NOT paint anything, especially furniture.

I have had bad experiences with painting in the past. Don't get me wrong, I love a good paint job but, those paint swatches that you choose from are not so accurate once they are painted on the wall, and in the right lighting can be very scary!!! I’m still having nightmares from a purple bedroom I had growing up :(

Now with that being said, I have also painted furniture before. I had an old wood farmhouse table that (three kids later) was in dire need of a good re-staining or paint job. I decided that I would just paint it because re-staining it would be much harder, or so I thought.

Oh Em Gee!!! Was I wrong! I had only started sanding it to find that what seemed like such a great idea, was more work than I had anticipated (remember I had three little ones and NO time for this). So it was then that I stopped the sanding and just started painting (mistake# 1). When it was finished, I loved it!!! It's rich black color gave the entire room a whole new look. And I was so proud that we did this ourselves.

Forward less than two years ahead….that poor un-sanded, unsealed paint job was still beautiful over-all but started to look like a hot mess. It had been used for many dinners, crafts, and kids coloring & painting and was showing its use. For a long time I just threw a table cloth over it and tried to ignore the horrible scratched up, worn paint that was hiding underneath (obviously, from a bad paint job). 

After much controversy, we decided to get rid of it and replace it with a beautiful glass top large round elegantly carved table with leather seats (mistake #2). It was beautiful and had the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in. I loved it…..as long as I spent every waking minute wiping off the glass! Table cloths became my purchase of choice once again.....ughhhh!

A new home and money saved to redecorate, I realized it was time to let go of the glass top once and for all and do this breakfast room right.

It was then that I remembered how much I loved my solid sturdy farmhouse table that suffered the bad, rushed paint job.

Well folks, I did decide to attempt this painting furniture thing again. I sold my glass top table (thank goodness) on craigslist and bought an old strong and sturdy farmhouse table and chairs that need some TLC in the painting area. I’m not sure if I am keeping the chairs but if I find ones I like, they will most likely have to be painted, too.

All I keep hearing about is this chalk paint stuff that is supposed to be fool proof and can be used on anything, including furniture. And there are many different versions of it. I am very nervous about messing this up again so I am taking my chances with the good stuff, the expensive Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White (possibly mistake # 3). I am hoping it is as easy as everyone says.

Wish me luck…I will keep you posted :)

Please follow my adventures in painting as I am sure it will be, if anything, a funny story.

labor dads are funny

A couple weeks ago, I had to laugh. When I left my newly delivered mom and baby “skin to skin” everything was fine. I walked out of her room for ten minutes to catch upon some charting and empty my two hours of pushing bladder. When I came back to the labor room, I saw that the dad, had stripped down to only pants and had the baby skin to skin on his chest…his very hairy chest.

First of all, honestly, unless you’re Channing Tatum, we don’t really want to see that. Second, isn’t this a little overboard? There’s really nothing about a man’s bare chest that would interest a baby. Third, it's out of place. You are not a patient, keep your clothes on!!! 

A Wild Pair

I'll start off by saying that I am such a plane Jane when it comes to clothes. I try really hard to spruce up my wardrobe but mostly find my comfort in solid T's, hoodies, and yoga pants, that is when I am not wearing solid colored scrubs to work. I feel like such a rebel when I wear funky patterned socks with my scrubs....haha! I know, I am pathetic and I will get to the point now.....
Last week, the inside heel on one of my solid black, nicely worn in Dansko clogs broke (yes, I wear those silly nurses clogs....and not only to work). I tried for a few days to keep wearing them but it got to the point where it actually was painful.
Anyhow, I knew that if I took them back to Nordstrom, I could replace them. My first intention was to exchange them for another solid black pair but, being that I am trying to venture out of my comfort zone...I decided that I should order a funky pair like some of the nurses that I work with. I kept going back and forth with getting another black pair but, after almost an hour in Nordstrom I finally picked a  blue/black marbled pair and went with it. Not very funky but definitely a step in the right direction.

My size was not in stock so I had to place an order and wait for them to be shipped. Ughhh!
I don't usually order shoes online but being that I had already seen them in person and tried on another pair in my size at the store, what could go wrong???!


After three days of checking the mail...they came!

OH NO!!!! What is this?! So, NOT what I ordered! Is this a true sign that I need to be more adventurous? Can my personality pull these off? I tried them on.....nope, not liking them at all.

Back to Nordstrom they go and back to basic black I go! :(

My First 5K

Let me start off by saying that I am surrounded by active runners and athletes.  I live in prime runners community. When I first moved into my neighborhood, I wondered what all those water coolers were doing on the benches that surrounded my neighboring communities. At any time during the day, my commute down Stonebridge Drive has runners of all ages and all paces. I kept reading facebook posts of people posting their 'time' and training for their next race (because they do this all the time….oh whatever!). I got a little jealous, to say the least and finally put my mind to it and decided to sign up for the Hot Chocolate Dallas race with my oldest daughter, Sydney. I didn't even know how to get started so I just continued to work out and add running into my workouts.

When I first started running (or attempted to run, rather), I read people's running stories….thinking how that didn’t interest me and I didn’t see myself ever officially running a race. But the more I read and the more posts I saw on facebook, the more I became interested and wondered if that was something I could actually do. I've been on a health kick since boot camp, so I was looking for a way to keep in shape and get the same energy and strong legs, for that matter, that all my running friends have!

As Sydney and I ran each week, I experienced some easy days, but also harder days. Becoming frustrated is simply an understatement on how I felt at times….even 3 days before race day I didn’t think I could do it.  The more I huffed and puffed and ended up walking more than running, the more I thought “what in the world am I thinking?” or “there is no way I can do this”. The more this happened the angrier at myself and at running itself I became.  It seemed I could hit the 2 mile mark and simply give out and have to stop and walk. I wanted to run a 5K, not walk it. And that was what I was determined to do. As far as “training” for my first 5K, I’m not sure if that’s what I should call it. I mean, it sounds so official-like…but, I’m just a girl who runs….with her kids….on a paved road…thru neighborhoods. I’ve never called myself a runner before and it seems to me that I’m just running a 5K; it’s not like it’s a marathon or anything like that.

On race day....I was freaking out!!!! Again, thoughts flooded my mind, seriously, I had never run in front of anybody, what if I fall? What if I can't finish the race? What am I doing this for...on this freezing cold morning?' Okay, breathe….I had a plan and I would stick with it. Race was to begin at 8:00 and we wanted to arrive by 7. I had picked up my race packet two days before. I had my clothes laid out and my alarm was set for 5:00.  I wanted plenty of time for my morning coffee and breakfast: my anytime snack of peanut butter toast with a sliced banana. It’s filling and full of protein and carbs...it's just what I needed! As we took to the starting line,  I was already breathing heavy and trying to calm myself down and focus. Slow and steady wins the became my mantra.  I repeated it over and over to myself.  I looked over at Sydney, gave her a hug, and wished her a good race. And so we began.

As everybody quickly ran out of site, I tried to keep my pace steady and stay focused.  It wasn’t long before I began to pass other runners who were starting to slow down.  I soon began to tune all of that out and just concentrate on my own pace and remember that I was doing this for me and for me only. The first mile actually went pretty smoothly.  My pace was steady and I felt good.  I was having fun. The second mile, I slowed down abit, but tried to keep my pace steady. I was fearful of tiring too quickly and I seriously wanted to run across that finish line! By the third mile, the adrenaline kicked in even more and my pace became faster. Did I mention that Sydney was way ahead of me and out of my sight at this point. My official time was 41 min 11 seconds…slow compared to others, but it was actually a personal best for me. I feel pretty good about my finish. I know this is all pretty silly and sounds like I should have been preparing for and running a marathon, but I suppose to me, in my little neck of the woods, it was. And now, I can say I DID IT!!!