Merry Christmas

Rudy got to open a few Christmas presents early and this was the result. He is a hoot.  We can't wait for the big day!

We are going to be unplugging for a few weeks.  We are going to be doing a little bit of traveling and having some family time, so you won't be hearing from us until next year!  I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Confessions

These are my confessions:

1.  I love the song "Redneck Woman" by Gretchen Wilson.  It's my guilty pleasure song. 

2.  I am NOT obsessed with Anthropologie.  I like their style, but I never even look because, let's be honest, who would pay $250 for a sweater?

3.  I hate the feeling of paper/wood products, unless they are finished or have a wax coating on them.  Especially after washing my hands.  Touching paper towels, newspapers, wood decks, etc.  makes me want to cringe.  I compare it to fingernails on a blackboard. 

4.  I get annoyed when people don't use its/it's, their/there/they're, to/too, correctly. BUT... I can not for the life of me understand when to use who or whom, no matter how many times I learn it. 

5.   I have to cough every time I q-tip my left ear. 

6.  Sometimes I get 5's and F's mixed up.  When I start to write or type a word that begins with an "F" I always try to start it with a "5" instead. 

7.  I could eat my weight in candy every day.  I love sugar.  But I guess most of you knew that already. 

8.  One of my favorite places to eat a meal is Sam's Club.  (Maybe I am a redneck woman.)

9.  I bought Rudy an umbrella stroller yesterday.  After I got it put together I pushed him around the house in it for about 50 minutes because he liked it.  And I was able to get things done. 

10.  I could spend hours reading people's blogs every day.  Even if I don't know them.  Chances are that if you have a blog and I recognize your name or face (even if I've never spoken to you) I probably read it.  A little creepy, I know.  That is why my blog was private for so long. 

And here are a few pictures, because I know these are what everyone really wants to see anyways. 

We went with Josh while he ran errands for work today.  Rudy pooped during the trip and after the diaper change we decided not to put his sleeper back on him.  He liked riding around in just a diaper.

Rudy's new ride.



Such a big boy. 



This is one from our hotel room the other night.

Eskimo Joe

Goin' to the Chapel

Or the Chicago Cultural Center. 

This weekend we went up to Chicago for Becca and Tom's wedding.  It was alot of fun!

Friday night we had some yummy Chicago pizza with family and some of B & T's friends.

Saturday morning was the ceremony at the Cultural Center, and then we went to lunch at Ditka's.

And then Saturday night we had a four course meal at Perennial. 

(I gave a speech. Haha.  Now that was interesting!)

Everything was just immediate family so it was really intimate and special. 

Here are some pics that we got. 

One of the bride before the ceremony.  Isn't she beautiful?

A pic of the new bro-ski before the ceremony.

Exchanging vows.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Tom Budescu!



Our favorite pic of the weekend.



Interviews, Interviews, Interviews

I have certainly had my fair share of interviews lately.  I wanted to make sure that I updated you guys on my interview from last Thursday.  I think that it went really well, but I am not hopeful about getting a day position.  The interview was for a neuro unit (stroke and brain injury patients mostly).  It is a new unit that is opening in February.  It is a very small unit (only six beds).  They are hiring five nurses for day shift and five for night shift.  They have already offered two nurses two of the daytime positions and still have to interview several internal employees (who have seniority) for the other slots. 

Today I had an interview with a nurse manager on a medical surgical floor.  She was very energetic and I really liked her.  She only has one opening for a day position and four openings for night positions.  She has already offered someone the day position, but the person has not responded yet.  So again, I'm not optimistic about it.  However, there were several other things that would make this job do-able.  They allow self scheduling, so I would be certain to have a schedule that worked for me, and I would be able to get days off that I needed without taking actual vacation days off.  I would also be able to schedule my shifts back to back, so that if I did have to work nights I wouldn't be having to adjust every other day.  They also have an every third holiday rotation instead of every other holiday rotation which means I have to work fewer holidays!  And they also have 42 beds and many more employees so it would most likely not take as long to move to day shift.

Both said that I would most likely not hear back until the end of this week or sometime next week, so now I am playing the waiting game! 

Snowed In

Or should I say blown in. First of all, I would like to apologize for my posting delinquency. We spent the weekend in Chi city celebrating the marriage of Becca and Tom. It was a fun but VERY busy weekend. (Details to follow in future blog post). On our way he we had to make a trip out to the burbs to pick up Murph Diesel from our friends that so graciously kept him for the weekend. We also got to stop and see one of my bests, Ray Jones. We, however, didn't leave early enough to beat the winter storm. About an hour from home the conditions got so bad that we could not see ten feet in front of us. Luckily the first hotel we stopped at was pet friendly and we are currently all snuggled up in our cozy hotel room.

Sorry, No Pictures

FOREWARNING:  This post is all over the place.  Sometimes it is impossible to put all of my thoughts into one cohesive post.  This is one of those times, so I am not even going to attempt to. 

As stated in the title.. Sorry, but there aren't any pictures today. As we are preparing to head north for the weekend, I've found myself very busy! 

Today I woke up to a phone call from Carle asking me back for a second interview!  Whew.  I was starting to worry.  Don't you love it when it is someone important on the phone in morning?  Josh answered, brought the phone to me, and mouthed "it's Carle."  I quickly sat up, yanked out my retainers, cleared my throat as quietly as possible, and said hello as best I could without sounding like I just woke up.  I don't know many details, but the interview is tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. CST.  So say some prayers for me, and I will be sure to keep you updated!

Josh, Rudy, and I went on a lunch date to Taco Bell today.  As soon as we got home Josh cleaned out the garage for me so I could finally park the Funk (for future reference, the Funk is our car, a Honda
Element) in it.  Thank you, babe!  (My love language is acts of service, so my love tank was quite full today....for those of you who have read The Five Love Languages. )
Then Josh had to head over to his office and then go to basketball practice. So Rudy and I got to work doing the laundry, folding it, and putting it away.

Rudy has been pretty fussy for the past few days.  I think he may have some kind of stomach bug because he pooped like 12 times today.  Seriously.  How is that even possible?  I think I changed a diaper every  hour that he was awake. 

I don't usually go deep or get serious on here.  I am generally a pretty private person, letting very few people in.  But, for some reason I feel the need to share this tonight.  Tonight was our weekly Bible Study.  As mentioned in a previous post, we have been doing a study on heaven led by Dr. David Jeremiah.  Tonight we talked about the issue of children in heaven and it made me so anxious to even think about the possibility of something happening to Rudy, and to be honest with you, I still feel a bit anxious two and a half hours after the study is over.  However, I am so glad that we have a God that is full of compassion for little children, that openly welcomes them into heaven when they are taken out of this world.  I know I have a few readers who have been through miscarriages and my heart was heavy for you this evening as I was listening to this study.  I cannot imagine what that is like and I hope to never say something to belittle the pain of that loss.  But, I do hope you know that I am oh-so-excited for you to be able to hold your little ones in heaven someday. 

That's all.

Much love to all of my lovely readers!

December 7th

Today we needed to run into Champaign to get a few things before Becca's wedding this weekend.  I was blow drying my hair, Josh was in the shower, and Rudy decided that laying down on his play mat was no longer a good time.  So I put him in the bumbo next to the play mat. 

 Now THAT was a good time!

I thought we got alot of snow this weekend.  My sister-in-law sent me this picture from PA.  That is their truck buried in the snow!  Crazy, huh?

Little Booger

We finally got those 5 month pictures taken.

Don't you just want to squish him?

Christmas Tree is Up!

I wasn't going to put up my Christmas tree this year since we will be gone the week before and the week after Christmas, but I just couldn't do it.  Our tree isn't prelit, so it takes alot of work to get it up and looking good.  It definitely isn't my prettiest Christmas tree, and it doesn't have any ornaments on it, but at least Rudy gets to see the lights! 

Now I just need to finish my Christmas shopping!

Winter Wonderland

We woke up to quite the snow this morning.  I was so shocked by it that I woke Josh up to tell him at 5am when I got up to pump.  He said "sweet" and chuckled.  I'm sure if his eyes were open they would have been rolling. 

Our backyard.



Out the front door. 



I bundled Rudy up and we went and made snow angels.  NOT. I can't wait until he is old enough to do that though!  I really did bundle him up, though, before we went to our church 'Hanging of the Greens'.  We went to breakfast at some people from our church's house and then went and decorated the church for Christmas.  It was actually pretty fun and especially cheery since we had so much snow. 



Little brown marshmellow.

It put me in the mood to decorate our house, but it needed cleaned first.  So, while Rudy napped, I cleaned.  After I got done cleaning about all I felt like doing was hanging the wreath on the door.  Then we dressed Rudy up in these reindeer ears so we could get a picture on our phones and send it to everyone in our family.  We tried putting some on Murphy too, but he wasn't having it. 

Then Josh and I made a late lunch of chicken squares (my moms favorite, you can get the recipe here) and popped in Home Alone 2.  We all fell asleep during the movie.  Josh on one couch.  Rudy, Murphy, and I on the other.  And we all just woke up.  It's been a perfect Saturday!

Also, this is my 100th blog post! Woo hoo.  I feel like I should do a giveaway or something, but I honestly have nothing noteworthy to give away.  Maybe on the 250th I'll do one.  Haha!

Rudy Taco

Rudy has been trying SO hard to roll over from back to belly.  Today he got almost all the way over and pulled on the play mat to try to get some leverage to get the rest of the way over.  Unfortunately the play mat collapsed on him, creating a cute little Rudy taco.  Of course, I got my phone out to take a pict before I helped him get straightened back up. 



Sorry my pics aren't the best quality, I've been using my phone camera to take most of them because my phone is usually close to me. 

This afternoon Rudy and I went to Champaign to do a little Christmas shopping.  Rudy got more oohs and aahs than he ever has before.  It was really busy, but we actually had alot of fun.  Not to mention we got almost half of our Christmas shopping done! Woohoo!

December 1st and Some Picts

Wow! December.  The last month of the year.  And I woke up to snow! 

We have been enjoying the day at home. 

We slept in.

Until 11.

Yes, 11.  It was glorious.

We made tacos for a late lunch/early dinner and are getting ready to go to Bible Study tonight. 

Rudy found his toes today.  I was wondering if he ever would.

We've also discovered that Rudy is going to be on the Pepsi side of the Coke/Pepsi debate.