Creepy Crawlies

We have some of THE scariest bugs/critters in our apartment. I’m sure it’s not nearly as bad as what you’d find down in the south, but still. Our bedroom is on the lowest level of our apartment building, so it’s part underground like a basement, which means… nasty bugs with 50 little long legs will scurry across the floor or wall at any moment. I’ve probably killed 10 of them since we moved in 4 months ago. Not bad, but still, scares me to the point of being afraid to fall asleep sometimes. Normally it wouldn’t do that to me, but one time I was making our bed and when I moved my pillow, one of the freaky 20 legged millepede bugs crawled up the wall right from behind my pillow. I screamed like a little girl after that! Usually I am the one to find and squash the little buggers, then I call for my brave husband to do the deed of disposing of them.  If it wasn’t for the fact that most of our walls are brick, our building is old, and we’re on the bottom level, it probably wouldn’t be a problem. Good thing I love our apartment and the location otherwise!

Anywho, I’m off to attempt to run outside now since it’s been five days since I last ran… this whole night shift business definitely threw off my plans.

Just a Glimpse

new grad orientation, originally uploaded by carriehansen.

I’m trying to figure out how to blog multiple photos at once from my flickr photo account, but am still working on it. For now, here’s a picture of me (on the left) with two of the girls with whom I oriented (Emily and Jo in the middle) for our first two weeks as nurses, and our preceptor, Joyce, on the right. I hardly see any of them anymore now, sadly.

State fair pictures to come soon hopefully!

Uh oh

I just realized that I really need to cut our categories list down.  That’s my next project.

And I think I just aspirated a JuicePlus pill. It hurts a lot and I’m kinda freaking out because I don’t want to get pneumonia the week before my sister’s wedding. Hopefully the little pill will disolve wherever it is and I’ll be fine. Kinda freaky though! I wish I could just cough it up but that’s not working. Now I understand how painful and scary it is for older people who have trouble swallowing pills…

Disconnected

As of yesterday, John and I have no internet at our home… so, a warning that our blog may be sparse until we do have internet again, which won’t be until I’m working in late July probably. It’s actually kinda nice not having internet… so much less distraction and more motivation to be productive in things that really matter. So, now we have no TV or internet… whatever shall we do? Thank God for free wi-fi at coffee shops! Haha, I may be visiting those much more often now… I’ll try to keep up with your posts!

Five Things

My friend over at Knightly Chats tagged me to do this little survey about me… so please, if I have tagged you, humor me and do it also. It’s fun to learn more random things about each other to get to know one another better! 

The Rules:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.

2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.

3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.

4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

 

What were you doing 5 years ago? 

- I was a junior in high school, having just finished the most difficult year of high school ever junior year, since I took a few AP (advanced placement) classes, one of which was European History which I did not enjoy, the other was Calculus which I loved!

- I was not a happy camper at this time, probably would have been diagnosed with depression… 

- I was going to local community church with my best friend Amanda which God was using to bring me to Him in the years to come. 

- My parents, my rabbit, Buddy, and I (my brother and sister were in college in Maine) moved from a house that we lived in for most of my life (ages 5 to 17) and next door to my best friend Amanda to a house right by a beautiful lake just 10 miles north, where I knew nobody but was still within the same school district. 

- Later in July I started working at Chipotle where I was the youngest and only white girl so I was hit on by the many older Mexican men… eventually leading me to quit after 7 months. 

What are five things to do on your to do list for the day?

- Read and feast on God’s Word and journal about it.

- Pray for myself, my husband, my family, friends, church, and those who do not yet know the Lord.

(Both of the above I “plan” to do everyday yet often fail to… please pray for me to follow through with it!)

- Take a walk/job outside or go work out at the downtown “Y” (YMCA)

- Organize some more boxes, particularly office supplies… and re-pot my basil plant! 

- Cook a new recipe for dinner tonight (from allrecipes.com) of italian pork meat ball pasta… should be good! 

What are five snacks you enjoy?

- Dried cherries that my mom me gets from Shipshewana, Indiana

- Chips and salsa

- Wheat thins with roasted red pepper hummus

- Fresh crunchy/juicy grapes

- Baby carrots with ranch dressing for dipping

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire? 

- pay off our debt and never use a credit card again (if possible)

- pay off our church’s and help support them in building more campuses/churches

- give to my sister’s ministry

- pay off my brother’s debt and help him get a place of his own so he can take care of his kids and so that my mom doesn’t have to work and take care of the little kiddos 

- help out my sisters in Christ who are struggling to make ends meet (enable my good friend Heidi to be a stay-at-home mom as she so desires!)

What are five of your bad habits?

- staying up late/sleeping in

- wasting time on internet, though I think I’ve gotten better

- picking at my hair/face when I’m stressed or anxious rather than immediately praying and giving it to the Lord

- being extremely pokey when getting ready to leave which means…

- almost always being 5-15 minutes late 

What are five jobs you have had?

- soccer referee 

- chipotle mexican grill… burrito extraordinaire

- receptionist at a women’s health club 

- sales associate at american eagle outfitters (clothing store)

- nursing assistant at a local nursing home/long-term care center

What five people do you want to tag? 

- my sister Jen

- my friend Heidi

- my ‘blog friend’ Kathy

- my ‘blog friend’ Stacy

- my friend from college Britt

Alive… just messy and scabby.

Sorry for lack of posts lately… I was finishing up my college career, so I think that’s a good excuse. I’m pretty much done, minus finishing up a final paper for nursing, but it’s a super easy paper and should be done in a few hours tomorrow morning, so I feel like I’m done but yet I can’t claim with an honest heart that I’m done yet. Sigh. 

Otherwise, not a whole lot has been going on. I’ve had some very interesting experiences in the neighborhood with the city-folk, which is a completely new thing for me (and kinda scary right now, but I think I’ll get used to it). One example: I let a ‘neighbor’ (not so sure she is actually a neighbor) down the street from our building use my cell phone to call her friend since apparently she was locked out from her apartment. Later that night I got about 5 phone calls from her friend, thinking that I was the girl that called him (Her name was Zee, or something. His was Howard.) He left a quite inappropriate voicemail for Zee that I listened to at about 1:15am that night… which couldn’t have creeped me out more, so of course the phone went off after that. After a friendly text that I sent to him telling him that I am not in fact his friend Zee, he called me and apologized, after asking if Zee was here with me…. oh dear. That was quite the experience that night/day. 

In other news, John and I got a new bicycle the other day and the next day he had quite a spill on a bike path near the Mississippi River in Mendota and when I came to rescue him, I found my dear husband all scraped up and bloody. He didn’t mention that when he called for me to come get him! Apparently it would have made me too stressed during my drive there, which ended up being super stressful anyways since I-35E south was closed…. So anyway, we came back to our place, after a quick stop at the local Walgreens to stock up on bandages and tape and antiseptic spray (which claims to be ‘no sting’ but man does it sting! per John). He had scrapes on one of his knees, a forearm/elbow, a shoulder, and on his face/chin. Poor thing. He couldn’t smile or even kiss me yesterday because it hurt him to move his face. I felt so bad for him and it was very hard to clean his wounds knowing it was hurting him more, though we both knew it was worth it. Definitely feels different to care for your husband than a complete stranger, that’s for sure. 

So, now John’s new bike is in the shop getting worked on, since the front tire needs replacing and the rim is a little bent… and John’s old bike also is being fixed right now since the seat randomly fell off while he was riding it last week and one of the tire spokes came out. John has no bike and can’t ride even if he did… so he’s pretty bummed since he’s been enjoying it immensely these past few weeks. I’m sure God has a reason for this though, perhaps to remind him not to find his joy so much in biking but in Him alone. Please be praying for John though, that he heals up quick and doesn’t get infected. 

In the mean time, our apartment is still a complete mess and once I finish that paper tomorrow I will finally begin the grueling process of organizing our living room and bedroom. I’m loving living here, just can’t wait for it to not feel so messy and chaotic. I’ve loved being able to walk around town and feel connected to a community, but again, being in a city is definitely new and weird for me. One neat thing we have done, for example: Tonight John and I went up to the roof of the apartment building and were able to watch the fireworks at the Capitol, since this week marked Minnesota’s 150th anniversary. It was quite the view! Eventually I’ll think to take pictures of these events… sorry. 

But for now, since many (two) of you have requested some pictures, here are some: (and Jen, you’ve already seen these, sorry!)

This is me in our dining/living room. That’s the cool brick wall!

Another look at the rest of the dining/living room, taken from our kitchen.

Our bedroom, looking toward the spiral staircase from the bathroom.

Our insanely messy bedroom…

 

As I stare at this thing called a Blog…lets make a deal

I truely haven’t grasped the concept of the blog. I don’t even know why I have this blog except for the reason that it makes my wife happy. The sheer amount of posting is overwhelming. I don’t know where to begin!

What is the purpose? That is the big question that I need answered in order to give me a reason to keep this blog. I am giving this blogging thing a chance. Two weeks, giving a honest effort at putting down my thoughts down on here. If at the end of two weeks, I still don’t see a point in blogging, me and wordpress part our seperate ways.