my time has come

My time has come. 

its time for me to learn to cook.

me, elyse? cook? for those that know me well...i'm not a cook

{to say the least}

i have been putting off cooking for as long as i can, but now it simply needs to happen. 

i can no longer eat tamales bought from grocery outlet. my body says no more.

i can no longer eat home made fried chicken. my body really says no to that one. 

and i can no longer survive off a bowl of popcorn 

{i do make some mean popcorn though :)} and cans of chili with corn muffins 

{i really like chili and corn muffins, but every other day is a little excessive}

its time to step up.

and so it begins...this scarry journey of learning how to cook in a kitchen that has the weirdest set up. 

so farrrrr....this site

http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/ 

looks the best. 

the Neapolitan Pancakes look AWESOME!

Being that my two favorite foods are burgers and bacon, i thought why not start with the favs. 

plus, i want to start slow and easy.

my first meal? 

Blue Cheese and Bacon Burger

http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/search/label/Beef 

i'll let you know how it goes

Casablanca

love this!

Change

HELLO! long time no blog... 
Tirzah keeps reminding me on how i need to blog more, sooooo i thought "why not today"


This past week or two i have learned a lot about life and the changes it throws at you. 


I used to have a cork board in my room that had the definition of the word Change-
"Change (verb): to make or become different"


I don't think it's until something BIG in your life changes that you realize all the little events that have made you transform as a person.


Another epiphony: Change is ok. In fact, it can be a good thing. It might not always be the thing you want, but then again, it may just be the thing you need for a while. 


Another thing thats changing....my favorite show LOST! the season finale is tonight, so sad! but why not celebrate it with a LOST finale party?...
...i think so :)

little old man

sorry fans, it has been WAY to long since i've last blogged.
i think chaos would be an understatement of how my life has been these last few weeks. lol
but i'm not here to go into that =)


my school week consists of 3 days (monday -wednesday) of Clinicals and 2 days (thursdays-fridays) of tests. ewww...


anywho....clinicals have been quite the experience. The awesome thing about working with old folks is that no one day is ever the same. EVER.


These last few weeks we have prancing around our clinical site in uniforms that are so white and bright that it hurts your eyes to look at them. Wearing white uniforms are not the best when you are getting pooped on, spilling coffee on yourself, writing with permanent markers, and giving showers....you can imagine at the end of the day how tired, dirty, and discouraged one might be. Sometimes it gets hard to stay positive.


but not all the clinical site adventures consist of having a dirty uniform by the end of the day. In fact last monday I had one of the most pleasant conversations with a little old man who lives at the nursing home.


I had always been meaning to talk to this man; whenever i saw him, he was constantly smiling and just  seemed nice. Well on Monday i had the chance to chat with him. I asked him how his Easter Sunday was.
His eyes just lit up and he went on to tell me how absolutely amazing his Easter was. He told me all about the kids and their easter eggs, how beautiful they all were, and how great his family was. He told me about how his wife passed last January and how he misses her like crazy. {he had a smile on his face the entire time he was talking} But then he said, "You know, I can't complain. I've got it a lot better than most. The Lord had blessed me."


That statement just really made my day. It's so uplifting to hear a person be so encouraging...This little old man made me realize that all things in life i consider serious DRAMA really are no big deal at all. It definitely gave me an attitude adjustment real quick.


With that said, he went on to tell me how beautiful everything was. what a nice man.


but seriously, whenever i have started to get irritated or bothered, i just remember this conversation i had on Monday and I am reminded that, "I can't complain. I've got it a lot better than most. The Lord has blessed me."


=)

the 1st and greatest...

So i am trying this new thing...

Every week i am going to have a new theme. 

This 'theme' is a bible verse which i am going to take to heart and try and live by for that particular week. 

To start this new project, the theme i have chosen for this coming week (beginning tomorrow)

is MATTHEW 22:37-38

"You shall love the Lord your God with 
all of your heart 

and with all of your soul 

and with all of your mind. 

This is the first and greatest commandment."

To love something with ALL of your heart, and ALL of your soul and ALL of your mind is big. 

actually its pretty huge.

and pretty hard to do in my opinion. 

to be honest, i don't think i have ever loved anything to that extent.

my question is,

where do you begin when loving God with all of your heart, soul, and mind?
right now that is what i am struggling with the most.

something to chew on...

but its probably the greatest commandment for a reason :)

so with that said, wish me luck this week in my challenge!

P.S.

clinical's was kinda boring, 
nothing too exciting. 

but it was only week 1 so it 
should get better.

keep you updated

March Madness...

School: 2 months down, 9 to go!
 (sigh)
Today we are mixing things up a bit. Clinical's start this afternoon which means that I will be getting to practice my nursing skills in the hospital setting! yay!
Clinical's are always fun because crazy things tend to happen so life gets a little more interesting. 
I'll be sure to keep you updated. 


So today I locked my keys in my car. No bueno.
Normally I keep a hide-a-key hidden away on a secret place on my truck. However, I recently locked my self out of my car (ya, its a usual thing for me) and never put the hide-a-key back where it belongs. Needless to say, when I went to grab it this morning it wasn't there.


I contemplated breaking into my car with a hanger. In fact, I youtubed how to break into your car with a hanger.  But I figured that it might not be the best idea. I called AAA and of course, the guy who shows up was like the creepiest person ever. Thankfully it took him about 2 seconds to open my door. 


Now i have my keys and off to clinical's I go!

social butterfly

I have always been a very successful social butterfly. 
What can i say? I like people.


Growing up (mostly in high school) i was grounded a lot because of not so good grades. The bad grades were usually because I spent more time talking during study hall than actual studying.  


My dad would constantly lecture me about how i need to focus on school and NOT my friends....
...untill now :)


Nursing school has done strange things to me.

• I am no longer a night owl but an early bird (i still don't know how i feel about this. I still think that waking up at 4AM is un-godly. really... no one should be up that early.)
• I actually show up to class. True story.
• Here's the BIG one: I actually study more than i socialize. So weird. Although, i do manage to squeeze a few people in ;)

I talked to my dad over the phone last week. During our conversation he actually expressed how he thinks i should be spending more time socializing!! HA!

I about died when he said that! This was coming from the man who has told me for the past 15 years to concentrate on school, not friends. 

Parents are funny sometimes.

Anniversaries

Meet my grandparents, Mac and Opal....

Over dinner

Gramps and I discussed Anniversaries.

He told me about my grandma's and his first wedding anniversary.

My gramps is a pretty big hunter. he likes to shoot things.
So for their first wedding anniversary he said bought her a very nice gift.


She opened it to find the shotgun he wanted.
it even came with shells.

it was pretty funny,
but i wasn't sure if he was serious. 
I didn't think my grandma was the
type of woman who would appreciate a shotgun and bullets for
her first wedding anniversary.

He continued to tell me about their second wedding anniversary.

She bought him a brand new white sewing machine.

that is pretty hilarious.

the Story of Screamy

Once Upon A Time there was a girl named Screamy.

she screamed, squealed, and squeaked alot...hence the name.

Screamy lived a happy childhood and one day grew up,

still screaming.

Now as Screamy grew up, 

her screams were a mix of screams that accompanied laughter

and not so good screams that would accompany roars. 

Today, Screamy roared.

tanning/tornado/gossip

today was one crazy day to say the least. 
a funny, weird day.


for starters, after my shower last night, i put on my "fake tan" lotion. yes, i am one of those people. but at least i have kicked the habit of "fake baking" {aka tanning beds}


anyways, so i put on my fake tan last night only to awake this morning to my hands being ridiculously orange. i mean ORANGE. after lathering up i usually make a point to wash the lotion off my hands so that i don't experience days like these.
but last night i forgot to wash if off. 

when i saw it this morning i scrubbed and i scrubbed but when all of it wouldn't come off, i knew that all i could do was wait. 
needless to say, i sat through school with orange hands. and yes, people asked me about my orange hands. so now when they see me with a nice bronze glow, they will know that it is not real :(


Only once in my life has my body been so orange. it is another tale of "fake tan" gone horribly wrong; except instead of being on my hands, it was my whole body. 
it was probably the most awkward moment of my life...but that's a tale for another time.

here is a picture to prove it:

now i know this isn't the best picture of my life but take a look at my neck in contrast with my face. 

like i said, it was fake tan gone horribly wrong.

***

my mom always taught me not to gossip because the person being talked about will always find out. 

well i am still working on the gossip thing but today i experienced a prime (hilarious for me, not so much for those involved) example of why you should listen to your mom.

in class there are a group of us ladies that sit next to each other. there is one lady in particular who is annoying to some. we will call her jane. there is one lady in particular who gets really really annoyed by jane. we will call her Edith. 

Today, Edith writes a text message to another lady in the group saying, "Jane is driving me CRAZY! she is being so annoying today!"

Unfortunately for Edith, she accidently sent the text message to Jane. lol

being that this was a lesson in gossip, i decided not to ask what the outcome of the situation was. 

but i bet it wasn't good. 

***

OH! i almost forgot, there was a tornado warning for Santa Clara County today!!!

WHAT?!?!? californians are earthquake people, not tornado people (although my teacher from Minnesota would beg to differ). it was weird and a little to much out of my comfort zone.