November 8, 2009 at 4:30 pm (Babies, Family, Personal)
We finally had decided over the summer to try to not try. Of course that is terribly hard to not notice now. We were going to, at my urging, wait to officially try next summer. As in try/try. Really just out of convenience because if I got knocked up in oh, say June, then I’d have a baby somewhere around March? Then I’d have 12 weeks off work, followed exactly by Hubbin’s 3 months summer vacation. Presto 6 months free childcare! w00t! Ahhem. However after the summer we’ve both had a little difficulty adjusting back to “trying not to” after throwing caution to the wind all summer. We had one episode that occurred squarely
on what I believe was ohhhh probably just the most dangerous day of the whole month. The little built in ovulation predictor on my iphone thinks the most dangerous day was the 29th, but I think with that drastic dip it was probably the 28th… whoops. (PS who really gets a temperature of 96.6… talk about cold blooded!)
At first I was like little freaked about it because Gah! Plans! The plans! But I don’t know… My opinion is starting to turn around a bit. Last night we went to dinner at my parents with Hubbin’s mom too, so our whole immediate family to have dinner and look at my parents pictures from their trip to France. Now my mother in law has been hard up for babies for years. To the point that before he met me she told her old lady friends she didn’t even care if he had an illegitimate baby as long as he came up with some grandbabies. Now we were looking through the France photos and my dad took like 6 pictures of someone else kid on the ferry in Paris! A little kid playing pattycake with her dad, my parents just thought she was so cute. LOL! Hubbin leans over to me and goes “I think maybe they’re ready for grandkids now too”
Then three days ago my mother in law called Hubbin to say that her doctor wants to set up a meeting with him because they’ve now diagnosed her with early onset Alzheimer’s.
So… no time like the present either way I guess? Thoughts?
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August 21, 2009 at 4:31 am (Family, Life)
Tags: Benny's Burritos, Dogs, Family, NYC, Panna II, Toys, Vacation
This week hubbin and I took a semi-spontaneous trip to NYC. My MIL has been wanting to go visit her sister in law (hubbins aunt) who is 80+ and sick with cancer (she actually looked pretty good to me) anyway she lives in Allentown which is about an hour from NYC so we turned it into a mini vacation. My MIL brought another crazy old lady with her for entertainment purposes. So on the full day in NYC we paired off and did our own thing.
After a nice visit with Hubbins aunt (and their 9lb rocket propelled yorkie puppy) we drove into the city and had dinner at one of Hubbins favorites: Bennys Burritos. Then had dessert at Planet Hollywood in times square. We spent sometime at toys r us where Hubbin lusted over the enormous transformers statue and pointed out all the toys he wanted to buy for himself our someday child. (we used no birth control this summer with no results, but that will be another post)
We all stayed at a nice hotel near Newark airport because it was, ohh about $100 cheaper.
On our full day the old ladies went to Coney Island and filled themselves with junk and remembered the good old days. Hubbin and I drove to long island where he showed me the school he used to teach at and the little house where he rented a room. Then hubbin was able to get ahold of some of his friends he used to hang out with all the time and we went to their house on the north shore near oyster bay (I had never been to long island before and that area was beautiful!!!) we sat on their back patio sipping iced tea and they reminiced. Hubbin loves their 
dog and still talks about her 
frequently even though he hasn’t seen her in 5years. The family’s daughter was walking up the street with the dog when we got out of the car and I would swear to you thr dog recognized
Hubbbin even after not seeing him for 5 years, ran straight to him all excited with copious dog kisses.
After their house we drove to Panna II on the lower east side. A little Indian restaurant filled with Christmas lights. We had been for lunch once before but it was much more clostraphobic feeling when it was packed for dinner. After dinner we decided to walk from there to times square. It was a long walk but we seem to walk a lot on vacations. About 6 blocks into our walk the weather apocolypse broke out with tons of thunder and lightening and strong wind (I saw later on the news that there were 80mph gusts in central park that knocked down trees.)
we of course had no umbrellas and I was wearing flipflops. I felt like I was walking bare feet on a slip n slide. We caught a cab to times square and took shelter in hard rock with all the other tourists until the rain stopped. After that we did walk all the way from 42nd to 7th. I’m estimating we walked about 54 blocks that day!
It was a nice spontaneous vacation, I wasn’t really excited to go because I have so much to finish at home before school starts Tuesday. . I’m back to work tonight– well last night and the next two nights, and Hubbin is back to work today. So our summer is offically over now.
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April 28, 2009 at 12:55 pm (Family, Laughing)
I just found this in my little folder for potential posts from, ahem, my trip to visit my great aunt in January. -I tried to tell you, school is destroying my brain- She was telling us about after her husband died (probably almost 30 years ago now since she’s 96 this year) she’s blind and weighs about 90lbs but her mind is amazingly sharp. Her husband, Higgy, wanted to be cremated, so she did, but I guess he wasn’t real specific about where he wanted his ashes so she decided she would put a little of them everywhere he loved.
So she was telling us how she sprinkled them around their church in Florida, at their cabin in Pennsylvania, his childhood home in Ohio, San Francisco, and then at the beach and a little here and there on every vacation she took after he died.
Anyway then she started telling us how people thought she was just a liiittle bit crazy for taking the ashes everywhere. Then she told us my grandma (who died at 91 in 2005 and had a wicked sense of humor) said to her: “Well I guess when it comes time for the resurrection Higgy’s going to have a heck of a time finding himself!”
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February 22, 2009 at 1:25 am (Babies, Confession, Family, Marital Bliss, RN-BSN, School, Student Nursing)
Tags: Babies, Income, Nurse Anesthetist, Pregnancy, RN-BSN, RN-MSN, Time
I’ve been doing lots of thinking. I know I’ve mentioned that I’m currently in an RN-BSN program and on track to roll that over into an MSN program to be a Nurse Practitioner in a few years… I’m pretty sure I’ve also mentioned that my mother is bribing me to apply to an anesthesia school of nursing (her profession) by paying my application fee. I’m also pretty sure I’ve mentioned that they get, oh, 600+ applicants for 25 or so spots. So I’m not exactly holding my breath about getting in, nor am I putting anything on hold for the nurse practitioner program, because I’m kind of just assuming I’m not going to get in. In the past 6 months or so Hubbin and I have been seriously discussing trying for a baby this summer. I’m starting to get to the point that I just want one. And thinking about it all the time. I’m sure it’s more logical and everything for me to wait a few years to finish school first… but it’s just that I want one. I’m starting to be attracted to all things baby. It used to be maybe once a month I’d be drooling over other peoples babies, but now I’m thinking about one on an almost daily basis.
It’s still a debate in our house whether we’ll have 1 or 2 children, Hubbin and I are both only children (he wants 1, I want 2), but there’s part of me that wants one now… to give me more time to think about a 2nd later… and I’m a little worried that if I wait till I’m 32ish and totally done with school for the 1st I won’t have enough time to fully consider a 2nd.
I didn’t realize how much I was looking forward to trying this summer until we had a serious discussion about waiting to see if I got into anesthesia school before we tried. Because Hubbin fully believes I’ll get in. I’m working on my application now, but I still might not find out one way or the other until next winter, to start in the fall of 2010… and I was a little disappointed thinking about it. I had an afternoon off this week after my yearly gyne appointment, where we briefly talked about “maybe” and I spent a good hour in Babies R Us just wandering around thinking about it. My friend is having a baby in April and her shower is in two weeks so I went looking for a gift off her registry, but ended up just wandering around thinking… “baby, no baby, baby, no baby”, for not even kidding, an hour and a half.
Part of the issue is this nurse practitioner program I’m in is part time, and at least until the end of the program is only one day a week… which isn’t too bad… Three days a week in the ER, and one at school… and while I’d prefer to be done with school before having a baby so far this program doesn’t seem overwhelming enough to completely talk me out of waiting till I’m done. The anesthesia program however, would be extremely time intensive for about 2.5 years. …so that if by some long shot I got into that program… I guess truthfully I’d rather not have a newborn at home to be worrying about or feel like I’m neglecting.
Sometimes I wish Hubbin and I were both just content to not have extra money. We’re doing just fine, but we both want me back in school so in the long run I’ll have a much better income potential, but sometimes I wish we didn’t care about having extra money to do fun things or buy nice things…
Lots of pros and cons and unknowns to all of it. And sometimes I just can’t help it, rational or not, I want a baby right now.
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December 12, 2008 at 11:29 am (Family, Life, Marital Bliss, Tegu-licious)
I’m feeling almost entirely unmotivated this year. I lost the yearly battle to host Christmas at my house (I don’t honestly care too much yet…) We went all out with the decorating last year and then while Hubbin and I were cleaning up I distinctly remember having the conversation of “Why did we DO this to ourselves? Do you really care if the house is decorated? No… do you? No” and we decided that we wouldn’t again decorate all over until we have kids. (or are hosting Christmas) So this right here is the extent of my decorating this year:
I do keep meaning to drag the tree upstairs, but no one seems interested in helping me (Hubbin or Stu) so why should it be all my responsibility?
The wreath was my 10 minute craft project the other day, I got a prelit wreath from JoAnn fabrics that has battery powered LED lights and I decorated it. I love the battery powered lights! I wish I could have found just a box of the white ones not attached to anything (they only seemed to have the colored in stock) because my mother-in-law gave us this sled (decoration) with greens and ice skates on it, but it has to be plugged in outside…. and they’re not outdoor lights so they make me a little nervous, being as our house is 130 years old and constructed entirely of wood (and the new styrofoam insulation).
I’m just not really into Christmas this year, and I guess it’s a personal issue. I went through the Anti-Santa phase where Christmas was all about religion for me and then I’ve kind of slowly drifted away from the religious aspects (of everything) and there’s part of me that feels like I’ve ruined Christmas a little bit by doing that… because what’s left?Christmas minus Commercialism and minus Religious significance leaves very little Christmas. Hubbin is pretty Anti-Religion so he prefers the whole secular-gift-exchange concept, but I just generally feel like all the emotion has been sucked right out of the holiday for me.
Sorry I’m only able to provide a picture of a picture at this time but we took Princess Tegu to Petco over the weekend to sit on Santa’s lap. We were at Petco a few weeks ago buying groceries and they handed us a flyer that offered photos of your pet on Santa’s lap. I immediately got this gleam in my eye because now we’ve got quite a track record of Tegu Christmas photos (Year 1: Tegu in a Santa Hat, Year 2 Tegu in a sweatervest with scarf by the fireplace) Hubbin wanted to take pictures of her in a sleigh and then photoshop multiple pictures of our geckos in as pulling the sleigh. I strongly feel as though photoshop in the Christmas Card arena is totally cheating. We weren’t sure if it was “legal” to take a lizard to get her photo with Santa but it didn’t specify cats and dogs only. I think the staff actually had a good time with it (and she was WAY more behaved than the golden retriever before her that seriously needed some ativan) They all took turns petting her and asked lots of questions and she didn’t even squirm too much for Santa. What a good girl!
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December 1, 2008 at 5:28 pm (Family)
Today exchange student and I went over to my mom’s to help make chocolate covered pretzels for a bake sale. Now Hubbin and Hubbins mommy are on their way for dinner, it’s already smelling delicious! I love family days! 
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November 6, 2008 at 1:49 pm (Emergency Nurse, Family)
Clearly there is to be no NaBloPoMo around these parts! And it’s not like I have no stories to tell either, I have lots of ER stories and a few family stories to tell, it’s just a matter of being to tired to type when I get home and having too much home stuff to catch up on on days off. I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking “oh cry me a RIVER!”
And then I always hesitate to type and entry when I don’t have a clear point or topic in mind. What’s wrong with rambling anyway?
My poor mother in law is in the hospital, she fell in her driveway (in the middle of the night of course) and bashed her head in on the driveway. She’s been having TIAs (mini strokes) and this was a situation where it was hard to figure out which came first because she says she “just lost her balance” but was she dizzy before she fell? or just dizzy after? hard to say. She went to the ER near her that night and they did a catscan and glued together her forehead and sent her home but she was still dizzy about 4 days later so she went back they repeated everything and admitted her to the stroke unit. They were originally keeping her for 23hr observation but I guess were too concerned about her balance to let her go and decided to try taking her off some of her meds to see if that helped but then Hubbin told me last night after he went to visit that they’ve also now said she’s got some bruising on “a lobe of her brain” but he thinks they’ll be letting her go home soon. –of course, prior to admission to the hospital when we went over to take her dinner after her PCP appointment she came home WEARING HIGH HEELS–
Our little ER is coming on some changes (which I’m totally okay with) the health system we’re part of is rearranging some doctors from the bigger hospital down the street to our hospital and we’ve been told to expect 10-20 additional general medicine patients per day. For an ER that generally gets in the neighborhood of 30-50 pts per day that’s a big jump, plus it will be more general issues which we don’t always get much of because we’re more or less known for “female issues”… I was working one day two weeks ago and it was just steady busy all day and I made the comment to my mom that we just seemed busy today and I was tired, the next morning I came in and there was a “congratulations” sign up that we had our busiest day ever, with 60pts in one day. So I guess that will be happening a lot more.
We had a CRAZY busy night saturday night with the time change, PLUS the computers went down and we’re SO dependent on the computers, and the slowest doctor we have was working, so we had every room filled and people lined up in the hallway (sick ones too) and people in the waiting room (in the middle of the night! which is also unusual for our ER)… THEN I worked till 730pm the other night and we had more than 10 patients sign in within an hour and we were so full of genuinely sick people (not just the stupid little vag itch complaints) we had so many chest pain/ shortness of breath that was ran out of monitored beds! They had to call in the medical director to come see patients and the daylight doctor had to stay late to keep seeing patients! It’s more and more frequently becoming like a real ER!
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October 4, 2008 at 9:46 pm (Family, Laughing, Tegu-licious)
Then found passed out behind the computer hutch. I swear to you she wasn’t there when I looked in the first 48 hours (Stu was a little concerned)… Clearly out partying from the looks of it:
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September 9, 2008 at 4:28 pm (Family, Fauxparent)
So one of the rules we set when Stu moved in was that he couldn’t take a computer into his bedroom as Hubbin and I both have laptops. My computer has Vista and Hubbin’s has whatever was before that, so we set him up accounts on both computers. Vista has pretty extensive options for parental controls but hubbin didn’t get quite so many options. Hubbin has an big tv that he hooks his computer up to on the computer desk in the living room, and mine stays in my office.
So the other night when I was about to hop in the shower hubbin bursts into the bathroom and dissolves into a fit of giggles. He then proceeds to tell me that he noticed his computer wasn’t there so he went up to Stu’s room and knocked on the door and asked him if he had the computer. He said “yes sorry” hubbin took it downstairs and immediately went through the web history.
That’s why he was near tears with giggles. Stu had been looking at porn and hubbin thought it was hysterical. He said he wasn’t sure what was the funniest part: that Stu was bold enough to do it, that Stu was dumb enough to NOT clear his web history, or that the third porn site he went to was Japanese cartoon porn.
Hubbin said “I’m not mad at him or anything, because I think it’s normal behavior but I am incredibly tempted to make the cartoon site his new homepage when he starts the Internet the next time” LOL
I encouraged him to not do that because if he doesn’t know we looked then who knows what gems will show up next time. 
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September 8, 2008 at 10:50 am (Family, Fauxparent)
I know I have a TON of studying to do, but I am falling a bit far behind with posting, so maybe one quick post and I’ll get back to my practice tests (the NCLEX is a week from right this minute! And I have 3.5 days left to study!)
So we skipped a whole lot of parenting stages with Stu, but stumbled right into the next big one. I was in the kitchen casually chatting with Hubbin about Stu and I made some comment about him looking for American girls and Hubbin said “Hmm, I don’t know if he’s ever had a girlfriend?” and I spit out “Well he brought CONDOMS with him from Germ” Hubbin nearly exploded “WHAT?! How do you know that?” “Because he left his toiletry bag in the bathroom and they were right on top”
When Stu arrived we were in the middle of repainting the bathroom and making a few other adjustments, so I came in one morning to find that Hubbin (as usual) had finished painting for the evening and not cleaned the bathroom back up. Stu has one of those travel bathroom bags with a hook for hanging on the back of the door and it was laying on the floor of the tub. So I picked it up and hung it back up, and what did I see….
Aside from that, I am a snoop and (he’s living in my house ) I’m not ashamed.
Hubbin of course thought this was all absolutely hysterical and immediately decided he was going to go up to Stu before the next time he went out in the evening and pretend like he was going to give him “The Sex Talk”… LOL. (Do keep in mind we had known this kid for maybe two weeks at this point) AWKWARD… I was giggling quite a bit, poor kid. First he clogs up the toilet, now his host dad is going to sit him down for a sex talk. LOL
Anyway, so Hubbin did. The next time Stu made plans to go out for the evening Hubbin went up to him and said he felt like he needed to explain a few things about men and women to him, and then goes “I’m just kidding, I saw you brought condoms with you” and you know what Stu said? He said “Well you have to be safe”….
Aside from “Not in my house!” What do you really say to that? It’s true? With all those STDs and unplanned pregnancies I see at work? Hubbin said he actually felt a little better about the situation knowing Stu actually knows how to properly use a condom rather than just winging it.
This is just one more example of how it’s kind of strange having someone else’s kid living with you. Because I do realize Europe is generally much more liberal about things like that than I know I am, and I know hubbin in many respects is very European. So while you can make restrictions, it’s still not your kid, you didn’t raise him, and he doesn’t share your value system necessarily. In a follow up conversation a week or so later Hubbin was asking Stu about his parents and what they were like and Stu told Hubbin his dad was just like Hubbin, that his dad told him if he brought a PS3 back from the US with no condoms gone unused he would buy the PS3 for him. A joke really, but still, gives you more of a picture that his parents know what’s going on with that stuff. -and he only brought like 3 or 4 anyway, so don’t get too up in arms-
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on what I believe was ohhhh probably just the most dangerous day of the whole month. The little built in ovulation predictor on my iphone thinks the most dangerous day was the 29th, but I think with that drastic dip it was probably the 28th… whoops. (PS who really gets a temperature of 96.6… talk about cold blooded!)
