Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Signs You Have Been Home Too Long...

Up until January, I have always had a job.  I worked a little during high school, when it was not softball season, and started working a full time job after I graduated.  When I thought about not working, I had no idea what it would feel like at all.  It feels weird.

Before I became a full time student/housewife, I had been working at home since August.  That makes it exactly eight months that I have been at home without going to an office.  That is about seven months too long.  I need social interaction.  I am one of those people.  While I was working at home, my co-workers in Texas knew they would have to call me talk to me everyday, because I needed to talk.  I like to talk.  I love the days I have clinical because I get to talk my little heart out to patients and their families.  I am that student nurse that is a motor mouth.

Over the past few weeks, it has become clear that it has been too long.  I have been at home for far too long.  Let me tell you a few of the signs:


  • You know exactly what time the mail man arrives.
  • In fact, the mail man arriving is usually the highlight of your day.
  • It is such a highlight, that you *try* to wait until he pulls away before you dart out the door to get your mail.  You do not want to appear like a psycho that was waiting for him.
  • You realize that your attempts to look like you are not stalking the mail man have failed, when he sees you at the community mail box and knows your name without even asking.
  • You recognize the sound of the UPS truck, no matter which room you are in inside the house.  
  • You also know if he is honking right out front of your house or if he is at the neighbors.  Different sounds you know!
  • The said UPS man gives you strange looks because you want to talk way to long while he is darting away to get back in his truck.  
  • You are on a first name basis with the trash man you see every Tuesday while you are out running at the exact same time every week.  
  • Your husband begins to worry because he over hears you talking a little too much to your cats. (This is the straw that broke the camel's back.)

I know.  Being at home sounds so wonderful, but the reality is, there is only so much Netflix you can watch and house cleaning you can do.  

I am very happy that the ladies at the retail boutique I worked at a year ago called and asked me if I would be interested in coming back and working there again.  It was like they knew I was bored out of my mind.  With summer approaching, there is no way that I can sit at home for five business days all by myself!  

I starting working about a week ago and am loving it.  I only plan on working 10-15 hours per week and will probably spend everything I make at the store, but the best part is, I get to talk to people!!!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Katelyn's Birthday...

One thing that Ken and I love about where we live is our neighbors.  They have two kids that we can treat like our niece and nephew, and they are really good kids.  We love being invited to their birthday dinners for the kids and were thrilled to be able to celebrate Katelyn's 15th birthday on Saturday night.

Me and the birthday girl

Laura's birthday is next week, so we celebrated her birthday as well.  At their house, all four of their birthdays fall within three months.  Talk about a lot of cake in a short amount of time!

Laura and her yummy dessert


We ate at Gram & Dun, which is place that neither Ken or I had been to before.  Our food was absolutely delicious!  The gumbo was amazing!!

Me with my wonderful chicken and waffles.  I start drooling just looking at it!

We had a wonderful time and cannot wait until next year when we get to do it all over again.



Sunday, April 5, 2015

Omaha...

Omaha, NE, only a short three hour drive from our house, yet we had never been there.  I had the day off on Friday and Ken took the day off as well and suggested me make a road trip somewhere.  I have always heard that the Omaha Zoo is wonderful, so we decided that was the perfect little spot for a quick trip.

We set off for Omaha at 11:00 am and pulled into the zoo right at 2:00 pm.  The zoo was fantastic!  The highlight for me was watching the sea lions feed and do tricks.  I was amazed at all of the things the zoo keepers could get them to do!  As we walked away I told Ken that I am sure the sea lions learned really quickly that if they do something, they get a fish.  I mean, if someone were tossing Cadbury Mini Eggs at me, I would pretty much obey any command!

We hit all of the zoo highlights, with the exception of the elephants.  The elephants are getting a new habitat, so they were off site at the moment.  Another huge highlight was seeing the baby orangutan!  It was so precious and I even saw the mama give it a kiss.

Mama and baby orangutan

The lions are also a huge favorite of mine.  We were able to see two lion cubs and the mommy and daddy.  I wanted to squeeze the lion cubs!

Ma, Pa, and Baby lion

After the zoo, we checked into our hotel in the Old Market area and hit up one of the local breweries.  We tried all 12 of their beers on a little sampler.  

Sampler at Upstream Brewing.  I sent this picture to our neighbor that was watching Kya, and she thought these were 12 large beers instead of sample size!  The clt, alt, delete was my favorite beer.  It was a German style, imagine that right!

Hanging out in the Old Market area

After dinner and more cocktails, we ended up stopping at another little bar for a final drink.  If I am being completely honest, I had to skip a drink at this stop.  Mama was already at her limit with the beer tasting, and three glasses of wine.  

Ken's new drink of choice, an Old Fashioned

Ken loves a good drink with bourbon!

We woke up early on Saturday, had breakfast, and was on the road at 8:00 am.  It was a super quick trip, but a lot of fun.  It was the perfect break I needed from studying and Ken from work.  I am pretty sure we saw all Omaha has to offer in our 24 hours there.  Thanks for treating me Ken!