Back to Life..Back to Reality....

Have you ever noticed that you and your family get a little cranky when returning home from a wonderful vacation? Well, I DO...here's some phrases that may indicate that you just returned or are returning from vacation...

1. Why are you going so slow? You REALLY need to speed up...Ohhhh...look, we just missed that light. Hmmpph...(I won't say who said this one)

2. Me-"Back off you big Galute!!" (yes, I do call Joel a big galute when I'm only partly annoyed with him...he thinks it is kind of funny).

3. Me-"What do you mean we spent too much on ________? I did NOT! I promise you...scribble, scribble (that's me calculating what I spent)....see...way under what you said!"
Him-"Well, we spent it on something!...we spent it on living...it's fine."
Me-"Well, maybe we shouldn't get a___________, and we don't have to buy _______."
Him-"Caron, stop worrying about it....we are just fine."
Me-"Well, lets not go out to eat again until next Thanksgiving...and we can skip Christmas presents for us and we can walk to work and...."
Him-"Caron, seriously, things come up sometimes..."
Yeah..I'm a bit of a worrier sometimes...:)

4. Me-"I forgot my purse"
Him-"What?! But it was right there on the ________-?"
Me-"Well, I still forgot it...with my phone and my wallet, which has my license and credit cards....and btw..I need money tomorrow for ________"

ohh...money! and driving.... the perfect topics for fighting! (not that Joel and I ever fight :)!!! just discuss..;)

I'll Always Be a Minnesota GIRL!

So, this is the first year I will not be spending any of the holidays in Minnesota. I didn't think I would be sad about that fact, but I really am. I love seeing my nieces and nephews every year (and their parents too, of course!)....but since I'm a workin' woman now, I can't! I will probably never live in MN ever again... but I will always be a MN girl at heart! I wear my U of MN sweatshirt proudly and always cheer when we win a football game (even though I could really care less about football!) But, since I've moved down south, I've been asked a lot of funny questions about my home state...I think some southerners think that Minnesotans are close relatives to the Eskimos or something...:)!

1)Here's the most popular question asked of me.
"Do you miss the snow?"

My answer-
"Only on Christmas day!"

2)Another very popular question
"Do you miss the cold?"

I always say "NO!!!"

3) "Do you ice fish?"

I think to myself..."hmmm...do I look like an ice fisher?" but I answer..."no, but my brother-in-law does...he pretty much hunts and fishes any animal that moves."

4)"Can you say _______" again?" (insert nose, bag, rag, sag, bob jones, or anything with an O in that blank."

I say "Shut up...Minnesotans actually have one of the purest forms of English in the USA."

5) "Do you remember the coldest temperature you lived through in MN?"

"I don't really remember...I do remember my breath crystallizing on the dashboard on the way to school some mornings. Once my father took a cup of hot coffee and poured it over the snow and it turned to ice before it hit the ground."

So there you have it folks...a short synopsis of my background...I'm now off to pack for my Thanksgiving trip to SC!

Daily Shower Cleaner

Lately I've been going a little Daily Shower Cleaner CRAZY! I just love coating my shower walls with the stuff (don't ask me why?!? I have this new found obsession with squeaky clean grout). Unfortunately this concoction is not cheap, so I decided to look up a recipe on google. I found one that costs about 35 cents a bottle. I didn't want to keep the secret to myself...so I thought I'd post it (a recipe is a essentially a list after all!!). Kudos to "What She Said" for the great recipe! I can't wait until my store bought cleaner is gone so I can try it out! (I know..I'm such a nerd!)

4 cups of water
1 cup of Hydrogen Peroxide
1 cup of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol
4 tsp. Dishwasher rinse agent
1/2 tsp. dishwashing liquid

Gabagool And Eggs

Gabagool And Eggs

Wow! I just can't stop looking at this Wal-Mart site! It's horrific. This picture isn't so bad...it just makes me laugh. It makes me wonder if he's a Wogger (jogger who is more of a walker...Joel and I came up with this name:) Anyway, I posted this picture because it kind of reminded me of the different people we spot on the way to Joel's work each morning. We've actually come up with names for most of them. Here it is...(a peek into our weird little heads since we came up with all of these names:)

1. Mr. Wogger. As I explained above...this is the guy who is faithfully out every morning wogging. That's right, I said wogging. Is it a jog...is it a walk? We'll never know. It's funny because Joel has seen this guy wogging for YEARS!

2. LaWanda. Ms. LaWanda is one of my favorites. She's always havin' a little dance party as she walks to work every morning. She's kind of a black version of my mom. I'm sure if LaWanda e-mailed...she would be writing about the chirping chipmunks and how beautiful the crisp autumn leaves are:) I'm pretty sure she sings all day long, too! I love you mom!

3. Howard. Ohhh Howard! He's so cute. He's also a faithful walker! He wears his best outfit for his morning exercise routine! A nice plaid shirt, with his pants belted at his belly button. I kind of want to adopt him as my third grandpa, which is funny because Howard does not even know that I exist.

4. The last guy is kind of a newbie. I've only spotted him the last couple of days, so I haven't come up with a name for him yet. He is a bike rider. The top of his head is shiny bald, but the rest of his hair is very long. That's right...he has a skullet. He's a short little guy with a bike that is almost too big for him....but he pedals along, with his hair blowin' in the wind (err...the skullet portion of his hair that is.)

Mr. NCLEX...I Don't Really Like You....

So I had the biggest test of my life on Friday. I don't think I've ever been so nervous! (well...I guess I was a wee-bit apprehensive when I had to play piano in front of a bunch of people...but my life did not depend upon my performance at that point!) Anyway, there were quite a few things I did not like about Mr. NCLEX...Here they are.

1) Mr. NCLEX decided the bathroom needed to be locked....all the time. Since I'm kind of a nerd, I arrived at the testing center about 20 minutes early (the office was not even open yet...) I thought it would be a good idea to use the bathroom after my morning soda and get settled. Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, Mr. NCLEX decided otherwise. Apparently, Mr. NCLEX likes to mock nervous test-takers by locking the bathroom...during the entire NCLEX process. Seriously...that was mean.

2) Mr. NCLEX also likes to ask ridiculous questions. Here's an example (*note* this is my interpretation of types of questions on the test...it is not an ACTUAL question from the test). Here goes...
Sally was a new nurse on a post-surgical floor. Her CNA tells her there are some problems with her patients. Which patient should she tend to first?
a) The patient who is choking on a chicken bone and turning blue
b) The patient who jumped out of bed, landed on his head with CSF draining from his nose.
c) The patient receiving a blood transfusion who is complaining of shortness of breath and breaking out in hives.
d) The patient who has a blood sugar of 35...and is cold and clammy of course.
I think there should be some other answers to this question such as e)RUN LIKE HECK! or f) all of the above. Of course...Sally, can not run like heck or she would be sued and unfortunately she can only be with one patient at a time! As one is taking the test, they might wonder if they really want to pass the NCLEX...afterall...who really wants to live through these types of scenarios?? :)

3) Mr. NCLEX, I don't really like you because you tested my nursing knowledge with 60 measly little questions. Seriously, is that IT? It's really actually kind of disconcerting. 60 questions (a FEW of which I guessed on) and you're ready to unleash me upon the world? Not quite sure what I think of that. But, I guess I'll take it. I really don't want to meet you again, Mr. NCLEX.

Little Miss Domesticated....

Lately, I've been trying to work on my housecleaning/organization skills. My mother-in-law is always, forever inspiring me in this regard. I do believe she is the ultimate hostess/house cleaner/planner! I aspire to be this way....here's a peak into the way I used to clean as a teen....

1. Throw everything in a pile...shove it all in the closet.
2. Throw it all in a pile...hide it under the sink.
3. Clear a space off my bed...go to sleep...
4. Friends coming over? Throw all of my clothes in the wash...(then I wouldn't have to fold them and put them away into my very messy drawers..ahh..my poor mom!)

Yep...you got it...I was pretty much a BIG MESS. Then I met miss Abigail Annie in college. She always knew where her keys were. Her notebooks were nicely organized. Her clothes were always neat and folded and she always had matching socks. I began to think that maybe my throw in a pile method wasn't so stellar. (although I always told my mom that I was organized in a pile sort of way-she always told me I would wish I were more organized in the future...but who listens to their mom at that age?:)

Over the last few years I've worked on my cleaning skills, but I've still been feeling like I was playing grown up. I do the dishes, iron and vacuum, but I never had much time to SCRUB my floor and the grout in my bathroom (don't worry, I cleaned them...just not as well as I do now) Plus, since I wasn't bringing home ANY of the bacon....I really felt young. Hopefully, that will change soon:) Maybe someday I'll even be as organized as Miss Abigail and my mother-in-law. I can dream, right?

It's Time to STOP Wearing American Eagle When...

So, I love AE. I think they make the most comfortable clothes in the world and they aren't as expensive as J. Crew or Anne Taylor. The problem is that I'm 27...almost 28 *shudder*.....I've decided I CAN'T even step foot into AE anymore. Plus, I'm a principals wife....I don't really know what clothes I'm supposed to wear for that role...but probably not AE ones:) I have been asked when I was going to start wearing ugly, frumpy principal wife clothes...hopefully I'll never have to do that.
So, You know it's time to stop wearing AE when...

1. A 15 year old asks you to dance at his high school homecoming (I'm not even making this up....this really happened to me)

2. Your patients continually question if you are old enough to care for them.

3. You are married to a principal...who doesn't recognize that you are not one of the high schoolers when you surprise him and drop by the school (yes, this did happen once).

4. The rest of the staff at your husbands school also thinks you are a student when you first meet them (when Joel is not around of course). They also question why you are going to the principals office....They then look really surprised when I call Joel by his first name :)

5. Your husband won't give you a hug in public because he's afraid someone will mistake you for a high schooler...making him look like a bad principal (I'm glad he's sooo careful!)

6. You're 27...yep...I guess that's really the real answer here....time for me to move on to the adult clothing stores.