A Test Trip to Baltimore

Yesterday I had my first orientation day of nursing school.  It was a one day thing - the next orientation isn't until August and it is a one day thing too.  And then classes start in September.  I can't believe it's coming up so soon.  Crazy!!

The day started out with a SHORT commute. 

This was the picture from the window of the bus heading into the city.  Looks a little dreary.
Who cares though - it only took 30 minutes!!!

This was the best thing EVER.  Rather than sit on a bus for over an hour, my bus ride was a short 30 minutes.  This was amazing.  It felt great.  And the bus drops me off a block from the nursing school and picks me up half a block away.  Totally convenient.  What is not so convenient is how I am going to get to clinicals.  I have to be there by 6:30am and they could be anywhere.  So, I am not sure what is going to work - should Ivan drop me off (even if it's a 40 minute drive both ways?), should he bike him and Evan to my sister's (a good option in good weather but not so great in bad weather), should we borrow my sister's car the night before and then he could drive it to her house in the morning?  Would she even be up for that?  We have some logistics to figure out!

The day was pretty interesting.  There were several dates we could choose so there were only about 1/4 of the class at this session.  Most people looked pretty young and a good number were still finishing their first bachelor's degree.  However, I did make friends with another girl who was 33 and talked to guy who was married, so there are a few "mature" students like myself too.  And it's not like I don't like 22 year olds, but we are in very different places in life so I won't be hitting the clubs in the evenings most likely (not like I did that as a 22 year old either though).

In the morning we reviewed our classes and labs.  Our lab/clinical uniform is khaki scrub pants and a white scrub top.  It is pretty hideous.  It doesn't sound too horrible but khaki scrub pants are not cute.  Think about grandma pants with an elastic waist band in khaki - that's what they look like.  And a white shirt???  Really?  And because I have a tattoo on my wrist, I have to wear long sleeves.  Apparently there is a no-tattoo policy.  At least it's on my wrist and not my neck.  I'd much rather where long sleeves than a turtle neck!

Then we moved on to drug calculations.  We did this for an entire two hours.  This is super important and we have an exam on drug calcs the first month of class and we have to get 100% to pass.  If you don't pass the first time then you have two more tries, but still.  It's a bit nerve-wracking having to get 100%.  On the other hand, I sure wouldn't want my nurse to have only gotten 90% on her drug calc test - so 100% is probably a good policy.

The other review we did was Anatomy and Physiology.  Yikes!

Sympathetic nervous system?  Cardiac cycle?  I better do a bit of reviewing!  It wasn't too intense though.  And here's hoping I can handle it all.  Everyone (staff, current students, and alums) kept remarking about how difficult the two years were and how different it was from any other type of classes/studying we've ever done (actually learning the information and retaining it, not just memorizing it for a test and then forgetting it later).  I just need to be as organized as possible and really buckle down.  And get my family on-board with my schedule.

All in all, it was a good day and made me excited to start!  Anyone else out there make a crazy life change in the middle of their life????

I got in my run, but I took no photos

I am a tad bit proud of myself for getting in my run yesterday.  I had a long, two hour phone call in the morning and after that I felt a bit lethargic and unmotivated.  Plus, I felt like I had a lot of work to do.  However, it was 70 degrees out and it seemed almost a crime to not go for a run in such nice weather, especially because the nice weather was only going to last a day.  So, I dragged my unmotivated bum out of my office chair and put my running clothes on.  I figured if I at least had my clothes on I would be a lot more likely to go for a run.  I probably should have drank more than a cup of coffee, but it was too late to down a jug of water.

As I headed out the door I ran into some coworkers who were headed downstairs for flu shots.  I guess they were giving out free flu shots in the building.  I don't normally get a flu shot, the only time I've ever had one was when I was in the Peace Corps and they made us get them.  I just don't think it really works that well and I've never been compelled to get it.  I know the government spouts it's amazingness but a lot of the research I've read does not support that amazingness.  However, I'm not against the flu shot and I don't think it's bad...so I wasn't going to make it a point to refuse a free vaccine with no line that would only take five seconds.  So I got it.

And then I went for a run.  I was going to do six miles but felt that was a bit long, especially since I still had a lot to do that day and I hadn't had much to drink.  So I did 4.5 miles instead.  It's a good thing too because this was not my best run.  I felt really tired and like my legs weighed 50 pounds.  And it was super windy!  I hate wind and for a good 1/3 of the run the wind was in my face forcing me to exert myself even more.  And I think I would have felt better with a bit more to drink and more than 4.5 hours of sleep.  But I finished it and it was good to be done.

Then I ate lunch.  And it was a delicious lunch.  It included my favorite English muffin: cranberry.  It is so yummy, especially with loads of butter and toasted.  It's only seasonal item so I won't get to eat it forever, but for now, I'm on a enjoy it.

Doesn't that look so good!!!  All that yummy butter is making me hungry just looking at it.  Have I mentioned on this blog how much I love butter?

My other favorite part of my lunch is this salad:

What makes that salad so goods??  The dressing!!  It's Brianna's Rich Poppyseed.  It is divine.  I am so excited every day for this salad because the dressing is that good.  It's not exactly "good for me" but then again, neither is all that butter on my English muffin - but sometimes you just have to sacrifice your health for a bit of butter and salad dressing.  I've eaten this lunch every day for three weeks now and I'm not tired of it.  I also have an apple (you can see it in the side of the picture), and if I'm still hungry I also have pretzals and greek yogurt...but the highlights are the English muffin and salad dressing.

I have an exam today in Chemistry so I'm gonna try and stay awake on the bus to study rather than nodding off - but I'm not sure if that will work out.  I am slowly nodding off as I write this already.  I tried to study yesterday evening but there were no lights on the bus and since it's DARK when I leave work already, I was forced to listen to music the entire time.  And you know it's a bad commute day when your playlist ends and you are STILL not home yet.

Ok - happy Tuesday and wish me luck on my last exam before the final.  I can see the end of Chemistry and I think I might make it!

Random dinners and finally a bus that works

First, I'd like to mention that the bus showed up last night so I finally got home at my regular time.  And the bus showed up this morning and it's not broken so far, so maybe I'll get to work at a decent time too.

And how do you like my new slippers?

Ivan bought them for me at Costco.  He loves slippers and can't imagine life without them.  I should have gotten them a size larger, but I didn't.  Oh well.

And today I have to call the vet because poor Dolce has a hurt foot.  He has been limping since Sunday.

I thought it would go away but I think it's getting worse.  Boo.  He looks really pathetic in this photo but really he's just sleeping.  My foot is starting to feel better though, so I'm happy about that.

Yesterday was a bit exhausting for some reason, even though I slept for a long time because my bus took 1.5 hours to get to DC.  I should have been wide awake.  Nope, I was tired and got a headache.  Fun times.  I have been the laziest cook ever for a while and all we've been eating is the fastest food I can cook.  On Sunday I made ground beef with hoisin sauce for Ivan.  It sounds gross, maybe, but it's actually really good.  I top it with cabbage and roll it in a tortilla and it's pretty tasty.  I didn't eat it this time because it has Red 40 in it and that's supposed to be really bad for kids.  I obviously didn't give it to Evan either.  Evan got a delicious meal of mystery pasta sauce (mystery because it has spinach and sweet potatoes in it) with polenta and some cheese.  He actually loves it.  Strange, I know.  I had some of the gazillion ravioli I have left over.

Then I made some lunches.

Don't you just love Evan's lunchbox?  I do!  And that's my green one.  It's not as cute because I need the biggest thing I can find because I take so much food.  People think it's weird that I plan out Evan's food for the week, but I'm telling you, it makes my life so much easier.  Every day I consult the list and put today's items in the bag or gather them in the fridge.  Hardly any thinking involved.  I think I should start doing the same thing for myself!

I have a chemistry test today so I tried to get some studying done.

It did not go well.  Pretty much about ten minutes into it Evan started crying and wouldn't calm down so I had to give up the notecards and head to bed.  Guess I'll try to study during my bus ride home.

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What did your evening look look like last night?

What did you have for dinner?

Do you bring or buy lunch if you work outside the home?

Broken buses and 10,000 ravioli

I drew this all by myself....

 Ugg, these past few days have been horrible with regards to commuting.  On Thursday my bus never showed up so I had to take the local (and got home at 7:15 rather than 6:30), on Friday the bus never showed AGAIN and I had to take the local and there was a huge accident and I didn't get home until 8:00pm (and keep in mind I leave the office at 5pm), and then this morning our morning bus broke down so I had to take the local.  Seriously bus company - service your buses!!!

Ok, I just had to complain about that for a second...as I sit here going to all the park and rides knowing I'm going to be 45 minutes late to work.

This weekend was super jam-packed.  I had my last day of First Tee.  The girls were actually sad and said they'd miss us.  That means A LOT because a lot of the girls don't love golf and they do it because their parents want them to...and then we spend 8 weeks trying to convince them that golf is a lot of fun and they should keep doing it.  So, it seems like we succeeded and most of them said they'd be back in the spring.  I will miss them and the golf season (and the extra paycheck!), but it will also be nice to have Saturday mornings free again.  And it's getting cold, so it is less fun golfing when it's 37* out like it was this past Saturday.

In the afternoon Evan and I took a trip down to DC to visit my co-worker and her new baby.  I LOVE babies and I really love tiny little newborns.  Her son was born just two weeks ago, so he was little little.  It was fun to see her, catch up, and hear her birth story.  After being pregnant I love hearing about other people's birth stories for some reason.  It's not something I ever thought about before, but now I'm always interested.  My plan had been to bring her some frozen food, but she didn't confirm until Friday night so I didn't have time to make anything.  I stopped by Panera and bought her a bunch of bagels instead, and I had already bought some granola and oatmeal a few weeks ago.  I felt like that was the nicest thing that people did for me when I had Evan - everyone came with food.  It was something that had never occurred to me and I appreciated it so much.  Keep that in mind!  If any one of your friends ever gives birth - head over with food, they will love you forever.

It's a good thing that I am not pregnant right now because I can tell you - Evan was NOT happy with me holding the baby.  He kept trying to crawl back into my lap and push the baby away.  Not in a mean way, but definitely in a jealous way.  I can totally see him being jealous of a new baby.  He played with his toys a bit but kept coming back and trying to crawl into my lap.  He does that when I hold my sister's daughter too.  He's definitely a momma's boy right now - he loves to cuddle with me and will climb into my lap and give me a kiss for no reason.  It's the most adorable thing in the world, but maybe it wouldn't be if I had another baby!

Later that night I picked up Ivan and we tried to go to Costco, but it was closed.  It was really annoying because Evan had fallen asleep in the car and then we woke him up to get him out - only to find out that Costco closes at 6pm!  On a Saturday!  Crazy sauce.  So we went to Target instead and spent a ton of money there.  On non-essential items - minus the dog food.  I HATE going to Target for that reason alone - I always find stupid stuff I don't need (and Ivan finds more) and then then next thing we know we are paying $80 when we only needed $13.00 dog food.  Frustration to the max (and yes, I did just say than and I know it sounds stupid, but I'm not erasing it).

Sunday was suppose to be a bit lazier, but it wasn't.  I got up early to go running with my sister and Evan - even though it was only 37* outside.  Freezing!  And I couldn't find our weather shield for Evan.

See that nice contraption that keeps Evan warm?  Where did it go?  I searched every box, closets, drawer, and cubby that it could possibly be and it is NO WHERE.  I have no clue what happened to it and it's driving me crazy because it's like $65 and I don't want to have to buy another one.  However, when it's cold and I force Evan to go for a run with me, I feel bad having the cold wind blow in his face.  He was fine yesterday though and only started fussing the last half mile, and never broke out into a full cry.  He did pitch one of his mittens overboard though and it's lost forever.  Sorry Mimi - it was one of the Mickey Mouse ones you made him last year.  It was a good run though.

That's me after the run in my running clothes.  Sorry, we don't have a great mirror to take good photos.  Also, I seem to have hurt my food somehow.  I'm not sure how, but it started hurting on Saturday and it's only gotten worse.  I wasn't even doing anything - just noticed this dull throb in my arch area and now it's so painful I can't walk normal.  I had to do a run-hop thing because it hurt to run and I am now hobbling all over the place.  I have no clue what could have happened and I am just praying that the pain disappears.  We'll see.  I'm thinking I probably shouldn't run on it until the pain goes away, even though running on it didn't make it worse.

We did finally go to Costco yesterday and spent a bunch of money on things we didn't need and some things we did.  I bought some Ravioli that I thought Evan would like, but he doesn't.  So, glad I have 10000 more raviolis for him.  And Ivan bought 32 Cokes.  Yup, I guess you can never have too much coke if your name is Ivan.  We also bought a HUGE bag of carrots that Ivan said he's going to help eat.  Ivan hates vegetables so I figured if he was going to eat a few carrots I'd buy them.  Of course we then had to make a quick trip to Giant to buy the rest of the food we didn't want 500 of or that Costco didn't carry organic of - like yogurt and eggs.

All in all the weekend was fun, but my main goal had been to study and that didn't happen much.  I started to study on Sunday afternoon while Evan was napping but then he woke up and was still tired and fell asleep on my chest for an hour.  So I watched Parenthood instead....

Empty buses and half marathon training

It's a bit empty these days with the Federal government closed.  I'm not sure how noticeable it is in the rest of the country, but here in DC it is extra quiet.  I can't imagine how scary it must be to not be getting paid because bills are still due and food must still be bought, but I will say that the commute is nice.  The roads are a bit less crowded when the majority of workers are on a forced vacation.  Let's hope they pass the budget soon though.  And it is a bit difficult explaining ridiculous things like a government shutdown to my husband.  No matter how I explain it, it doesn't make sense to him...why? Because it's stupid and doesn't make sense in real life either.

As I mentioned before, Monday was the start of my half marathon training.  Except I didn't start because I was too busy at work.  I did start on Tuesday though.  I ran a short distance of 3 miles.  I'm not sure what it was but it was hard.  I've run three miles many times and I've run more than that on the weekends with my sister pushing the jogger, but something about running during lunch downtown made it hard.  I didn't stop to walk (although I really wanted to) but I did slow down a lot in my last mile, and not just because it was uphill.  I'm not sure what made the run so hard...the unexpected heat, lack of water, exhaustion? Could have been any of those.  I persevered though and finished.  Not sure how long it took me since I don't run with a watch, but I don't think it was too slow.  I am going again today.  And hopefully a coworker is joining me.

Talking about water, Evan loves my Camelback water bottle and can actually drink out of it.

The bottle's almost as big as him!  

Yesterday I needed to get some studying done, so Ivan took Evan on a long walk in the backpack.  It's funny because Evan must love that backpack because when he sees it on the floor he get really excited and yesterday (because he was tired) he cried until we put him in it.  Then he was super happy.  So, they went on a walk and Evan loved it.

I was glad to get a few minutes to study for my lab quiz.  I have a test next week so the study will have to be on all weekend.

And can I mention how excited I am that NCIS is back on.  And the Voice.  Last year at this time I was on maternity leave and life was a blur with lots of TV.  Now I can't even handle one TV show, but I'm determined to see NCIS, especially since one of the characters is leaving the show and being replaced with someone else.  I wish Parenthood would go on Amazon Prime so I could watch it for free!  I love that show too!

Ok, I'm falling asleep so toodles!

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Training for any races these days?

What's your favorite fall show?

Broken bus and a new strategy

Note: I am writing a lot of my posts on my iPad on the bus to work and it is hard to make posts pretty and not make grammar mistakes.  I try my best to re-edit when I get to a real computer, but sometimes that's not for a while.  So I apologize for all the mistakes!

You know it's gonna be a bad day when your bus breaks down and you're going to be an hour late for work.  It's especially annoying because I leave the house at 6am and then the next bus doesn't show up until 7am.  I could have used that extra hour of sleep people.  Instead I'm standing out in the cold waiting for nothing.  It also makes my day feel all discombobulated.  Grr.  Time to put my positive pants on though and just shake it off.  Or look at cute pictures of Evan sharing a clover he found.

Yesterday I had a slight epiphany.  If I wait to take my morning shower until the late afternoon, I don't have to shower this morning.  That saves me so much time. I slept in for an entire half hour longer.  It was glorious.  On Wednesdays I work from home so no one notices if I don't shower.  Then I shower when hubs gets home and I head to class in the evening.  As long as I don't spill chemical substances all over me, I am still clean the next morning.  Why didn't I think of this earlier?

I am still yawning though.  Enough sleep was still not had.  Evan woke up right as I was going to head to bed and I knew I could have put him back to sleep but I decided I wanted to snuggle with him.  Now with class two nights a week and work and golf, I feel like I never see him.  I make sure to snuggle and play with him constantly when I am home, but sometimes I miss him and just want to cuddle at night.  Plus, he likes to hold my hand when he's sleeping so what is more precious than that??  Nothing.  Except maybe him trying to eat a nectarine by himself.

I had a chat with a bunch of my co-workers about raising bilingual kids and I have a feeling it's gonna be a big challenge.  They are all native speakers and were talking about how none of their children speak Spanish well and usually only speak English at home and school.  One of my co-workers has her daughter in a full immersion school but there are not many of those around.  I'd really like Evan to know Spanish, so I am debating speaking to him in Spanish rather than English.  Then at least it would be Spanish at home all the time...until he gets bigger and decides he doesn't want to speak Spanish at all.  Which I guess is common.  We'll just have to make sure we take him to Honduras so he is forced to speak Spanish. 

Ok, I don't have much more to say.  Of course since I'm not on my regular bus I'm not tired enough to go to bed.  So I guess I'll try and finish up Shucked, my book club book.

Have a fantastic Thursday!

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Anyone else out there trying to raise bilingual kids?  Anyone been successful?

Does it mess your entire day up when you get a late sort in the morning?

Any other night showerers??

Five Question Friday

Just typing the word Friday makes me very happy when I have a three-day weekend ahead of me.  One extra day to relax.  One extra day to get things done.  It’s amazing how wondering that feels.  Yay for holiday weekends!

I felt like doing Five Question Friday today, in honor of relaxation and good things to come.  If you want to participate, hope over to Five Crooked Halos and link up!

1. Do you wake before the alarm or stay in bed until the last possible moment?
   Well, that depends.  If I am getting up for work, I rarely wake up before my 4:30am alarm goes off.  Unless Evan wakes up and wants to eat.  Which happens often.  I am usually so happy to be in bed that I wait until the last possible moment to get up – five seconds extra rest can be the difference between a good day and an exhausting day!
   
2. Who should get a baby shower?  Is it just the first baby or all babies?
   I know a baby shower is traditionally to shower the new mom with new stuff for the baby.  However, I believe that baby showers are a great time to shower moms with love.  My sister has had three kids and I’ve given her a shower each time.  Of course, not huge showers with registries or anything – that was what we did for the first one.  For the other two they were more intimate gatherings with a few gifts.  I kind of feel like each child is worthy of some sort of celebration!
   
3. How will you spend Memorial Day?
   I have a wedding on Saturday (my bus friend’s wedding – that’s how much time I spend commuting to work…I’m going to the wedding of a woman I met on the commuter bus!) and then on Monday we are having a small BBQ.  I love BBQs so I am excited.  I hope the weather cooperates!
   
4. Do you have a storm/tornado/hurricane/fire plan for your kids/house?
   No.  We should, but we don’t.  We don’t really live in an area that has many natural disasters though – at least not yet.  With global warming who knows what the next ten years has in store for us.  My fire plan would be to exit through the front door and if the fire was in the way of that, to go to one of the bedrooms, put a wet towel under the door, and wait for the fire engines.  We are on the fourth floor so jumping isn’t really an option.  I should get an escape latter, but I haven’t yet.
   
5. What is your favorite morning drink?
   Coffee with cream and sugar.  I love coffee in the morning – I love the idea of it more than I actually like the drink, but a nice creamy warm drink in the morning is the best feeling.  When I was pregnant I hated the taste of coffee so I drank tea every morning (and sometimes just hot water) and it worked too.  But there is just something special about coffee.  And I drink decaf so it’s not really the caffeine.

 

What are your Memorial Day plans?

Do you have a long or short commute to work?

It’s a Bit Chilly mixed in with randomness

This morning I woke up and it was SNOWING.  Yay!!  It was the perfect amount – enough to make everything white and sparkling, but not enough to make me stress about getting to work.  Here is a picture from my office.

Ok, that is a view from my office building, not my office. 

This is the view from my office…at least I have a window, right?  Maybe?  Who wants to stare at a brick wall.  And actually, I never have the blinds open because I am terrified that I will one day forget to close them while I’m pumping and the people in that office across the alley will be able to see me.  How humiliating would that be????

But back to the snow.  I only like a ton of snow on the weekends, on vacation, or if it’s going to be enough to close the government.  That only happened during Snowpalooza 2010.  It was awesome – the government closed for almost two weeks and since we follow the government, we closed for almost two weeks.

This small amount of snow didn’t close the government.  Or my office.  So off to work I went.  It has been freezing though.  I know you people who live in Minnesota or Wisconsin or Montana or Alaska are probably giving me mean looks when I say it’s been freezing, but here in Maryland a temperature of 13 degrees is freezing (and scientifically speaking it’s freezing too).  The other day the wind chill was –6.  That’s cold.

I had to bundle myself up (and take the token photo in my office bathroom) and even where a hat.  It has to be really cold for me to wear a hat.

It was also too cold for me to go running.  I don’t have running clothes for –6 degrees.  I don’t even know what those running clothes would be.  How would you prevent frostbite on your nose?  No clue.

In this cold weather, I have learned a few things.

1. My work shoes are not meant for cold weather.  My toes freeze waiting for the bus.  No wonder people have boots.
2. My work pants are really thin and the cold air seeps right through them turning my legs bright red.
3. I am super happy that I got a real winter coat last year for Christmas.  It is Under Armour (my favorite) and it keeps me really warm.
4. Those duraflame logs may look pretty but they don’t provide any heat whatsoever.

That’s all I’ve learned.

Hope you’re keeping warm wherever you are!!!

 

Do you like cold weather or warm weather?

Do you have a fireplace?  Real wood or duraflames?

The Return to Work

Ok, I know it's been a long time since I posted.  The last few weeks of maternity leave flew by and I was busy spending as much time with baby Evan as possible.  I still can't believe he's three months old and I am back at work.  Boo.

Loving the bumbo!

Returning to work was hard and easy at the same time.  My sister was watching him when I first went back and since I knew she loved him and would take good care of him, I wasn't super worried dropping him off.  However, I was still sad.  It is hard thinking that he is going to grow up with someone else watching him and taking care of him.  I didn't have a baby so someone else could raise him.  Unfortunately we don't have enough money for me to stay home (and I make most of the money anyway, so I would definitely not be the one staying home), but I would do it in a minute if we did.

Going back to work wasn't quite so bad though.  I like my work and I like the people I work with, so it could be worse.  The minute I got back in line at the bus stop, it felt like I had never left.  I turned the lights on in my office and it was like nothing changed.  I slipped back into work mode super easily and the only adjustment is the fact that I have to pump all the time.  Other than that, it felt like I had never left and that nothing had changed.

My first week back was a bit stressful, I admit.  I had to get a presentation done to present at a legal conference in Chicago and then I had to fly out to Chicago on Thursday to present it.  And while I was there, my sister went into labor and gave birth to a little girl 30 minutes before I got off the plane.  And then I had a site visit by the CDC for my grant on Friday morning.  Yikes!  It was hard enough getting up at 4:30am to go to work, let alone flying to Chicago and back in one day, and preparing for site visits and presentations.  It all worked out though and I recovered on the weekend.

This is what I wanted to do, but Evan beat me to it!

I did relax a bit on Saturday, but then spent Sunday cooking and cleaning.  I made Creamy Chicken Soup and Oven Baked Chimichangas for my sister (so she has some food for those first few days after giving birth) and then Sopa de Frijoles for my husband.  Then I put our Christmas tree up (it's super tiny, a mere 2ft tall) and our holiday decorations (an advent calendar my mom made us and two stockings).  I also did a load of lights, darks, towels, baby clothes, and diapers.  Lots of laundry!!!

And now the weekend is over and the work week is about to start again.

Who wouldn't want to spend all day with me???

And Evan gets to spend the days with his father, since my sister isn't watching him right now.  I'm jealous!

Goodbye Office!

Friday was my last day going to work, until December.  Crazy to think about.  I am still working from home this week (not today, since it's a holiday), but I won't get to see anyone.  And I won't actually be in DC.  It feels so weird, to be honest.  I realize I could be sitting in my house for another three weeks before the baby comes, but I just didn't want to risk it.  I commute an hour and twenty minutes to work in the morning and an hour and 45 minutes home - and the idea of being in labor while on the bus or so far from home wasn't very appealing.  It is much more comfortable at home.

I will miss my office though.

A view of my office - with my alley window - do you see how close
the people across the alley are!

Here's a view of my office from the door.  It looks super neat and tidy but I snapped these pictures on my way out the door so I had cleaned it up before I left.  The mess that I was working on came with me (so I can finish it up at home) and then I put everything else away so that it didn't look like a disaster zone for the next three months.  It doesn't always look like a disaster zone, but occassionally the papers pile up and get scattered everywhere.  Check out the photos on the wall - those are little cow photos my mom took.  I brought them to work because I spend more time there than at home, but for the next three months I guess that won't be true.

Another view of the office

Here's the side view.  And yes, I do have stuffed animals on my desk.  They give my office a bit of character.  I have one of the funnest decorated offices in the building, I'm sure.  I just figured I spend so much time here that I wanted it to be as comfy and homey as possible.  So I have a ton of photos and knicknacks that remind me of all the people I love and the things I care for right at my fingertips.  I just got this new office in January, so I'm quite happy with it.  My last office was really big but the front part was used to store boxes and files so it was a bit crazy in there. This office is smaller but it's all mine and I like it much better.  Plus, it has a window - a hot commodity in any office building!

Ok - that about it.  I guess this post is pretty appropriate since it's Labor Day and this is where I normally labor.  In the next few weeks I'll be laboring in a completely different way though!  Haha - I can't tell you how many people have made that joke - about how funny it would be if I went into labor on Labor Day.  Yeah, I don't think it's gonna happen, but we still have today!

Hope your weekend has been going well and you're enjoying your extra day off (if you're lucky enough to get it)!