Word verification...

I had to turn on the word verification for comments. I was getting some weird, random comments. Just a minor change.

Please resume your regular, frequent commenting. :)

STL Mardi Gras 2010

As I posted about last year, I went to the Mardi Gras celebration in St. Louis, MO again this year. Although my post last year said that I wanted my next Mardi Gras experience to be the real thing in New Orleans...that just didn't happen.

The Mardi Gras in STL was a lot of fun this year...I had even more fun than last year. I made the trip with Tiffany, Beth, and Abbey. We stayed in Washington again with Katie (at her parents).

Katie just bought a house (closed a week ago) so we got to take a tour of that on Friday night. I am so excited for her to become a homeowner. I have to say that she is putting my home ownership to shame...we haven't done many home improvements since buying our house 19 months ago. And in one week Katie has ripped up carpet, removed walls, painted, framed walls, and probably even more than that. I cannot wait to see progress pics..and see it when it's all finished.

After touring Katie's house we went back to her family's house. My absolute favorite part of their house is the hot tub. We spent some time in there catching up, laughing, having a couple of drinks, and just hanging out. We went to bed at a decent time because we knew we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday.

Saturday morning came and we slowly got moving. We got up early enough that everyone could get ready at their own pace and there was no rushing (plus!!). We left Katie's parent's house around 9...we made a pit stop at McDonalds and Walmart and then met Katie's boyfriend to head to St. Louis. It is about a 40 minute drive.

The rest of the day was spent with good friends, lots of good people, drinking, and people watching (again, this year, the best part). We couldn't stay past sun down (same as last year) because it was too cold. So this year we went back to Washington and went to the bar instead of straight home. That was a good time as well. I never seem to have a boring time when I visit WashMo. :)

After the bar it was time for more hot tubbing. Only about half of us stayed up for that...and we were in there for about 3 hours (maybe not the best idea to be in there so long).

It was a great weekend and I am already looking forward to next year. :)

And the pics....

The group...Tiffany-Katie-Beth-Random puppy lady-Me-Abbey

Partner porta-pottying...invented by Katie and Beth.

We encountered some pretty interesting people. :)

There are more, but blogger is being weird about dragging pics from Flickr at the moment so that's all I can do for now.

ETA: Ugh, there's that formatting issue again. Blogger won't let me double space between paragraphs. Sorry for the jumbled mess.

Oh happy day!!

I am in a bit of a funk today. I have been off work for a week now. It's been a great break, but in the back of my mind I know that I am not getting paid for this week (and the next half week I have off before starting on Monday). It takes some of the enjoyment out of it all. So that's my funk...





My funk has disappeared a bit when I logged in to find this joyful post from MrsTote. If you haven't already, check out her blog. She has some amazing recipes and is quite the domestic diva...I know she loves when I call her that. :)

Onto the joy that is this post...I was tagged by Katie at A tote's life (see link above). It's a fun, day brightening tag so here we go...





The rules:
_List 10 things that make you happy.
_Tag 10 bloggers and link back to the person who tagged you.


Ten things that make me happy:

1. Blog comments...hint! hint! :):)

2. Lazy days with Justin.

3. Snuggling with my puppy...especially on cold, winter mornings.

4. Hanging out with friends.

5. Tailgating.

6. Watching football.

7. Meeting fitness goals..whether it be keeping my calories in check for a day, meeting my goal for minutes of working out in a week, etc.

8. Sunshine...oh how I love sunshine.

9. Mexican dinner dates with Justin.

10. My family...all crazy sides of my family.


And I now tag....
MrsEyeCanSee at The Juice is Worth the Squeeze
Michelle at See Michelle Blog
Renee at A Taste of Life
Tiffany at Baby Fish
Shalay at Writefully Yours
Amanda at Amanda's Life Commentary

Amy at Newlywed News
Casey at You Call It Madness But We Call It Love
Allie at Simply Allie
Amy at Life in the Junction

**Sorry to anyone who has already been tagged. :)

See ya later!

I had this whole post thought out in my head to write yesterday. Today was my last day of work...

At this time last night, I thought I was a-ok with that. I thought I might shed a few tears, but I never expected to be completely heart broken and for it to be so tough.

Even driving into work - I was cool with it being my last day. I was thinking, "yeah, I can do this. Bring it!"

I walked in and went straight to human resources so that I could get my immunization records and discuss rolling over my retirement to the new job. When I walked into my department, a bunch of my coworkers were there to "surprise" me with goodies and food. It was so nice of them. I managed to hold it together through everyone talking about my last day.

I quickly learned that I did not prepare myself for the types of feelings that I felt today. I was not prepared to hear how much I would be missed. I was not prepared for tight hugs that I knew were coming from the heart. I was not prepared to be missed by my favorite cafeteria lady that I saw everyday...and who I might not ever see again. I was not prepared to think about possibly never seeing some of my coworkers ever again. I was not prepared to clock out for the last time at that hospital.

Even more than all of that - I was not prepared to say goodbye to the coworkers who I consider good friends...and a couple my best friends, even. Some of these people I went to college with. Some of them were there when I was a student and when I became a full time tech. And some of them came in between.

This was the first place I worked where I was putting my major to use. I started as a student and was hired post-graduation. I only worked there for 4 years, but those 4 years were very important in my life.

I created bonds with those people. We would hang out after work. I could vent about life to them and they could do the same to me. We could fight one day and make up easily the next like nothing happened. I am going to miss them all so much.

I know that I want to be in Columbia...there is no question about that. It does not, however, make it any easier to leave the life that I have had for the last 4 years (at my job/hospital) and 7 years (since I moved to this city after high school). I am so excited for the next chapter in my life, but it's a bittersweet feeling.

If I could transplant my hospital and friends into Columbia - I would be in heaven. Obviously, that's me living in a fantasy world.

Life is about the changes and challenges. I am ready to face them full steam ahead. That's why I left work today saying "see ya later" and not "goodbye." I know I will see many of them again..and keep in touch with the majority of them. They all know that my journey started there and they understand that this is what is best for me. It's great to have their support as difficult as it is.

**And I want to apologize if this post is jumbled, rambling mess. It's hard to put into words the many different feelings that I have gone through in the last couple of weeks...and specifically the last couple of days.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's day to everyone. I hope that you have been surrounded by friends, family, spouses, children, and whoever else you love today.

Unfortunately, I only got to see Justin for 30-45 minutes today. I went to St. Louis with the girl for the Mardi Gras celebration (like I did last year). I will dedicate a post specifically for Mardi Gras later this week.

On our way back home (to KC) this afternoon, we stopped in Columbia so I could say hey Justin and the family. It was tough leaving, but I will be there for good later this week.

I have never been big on Valentine's day. While I enjoy there being a holiday to celebrate the love in your life...I just don't get the overpriced candies, flowers, and waiting hours just to have dinner that you could have in half the time the following day.

Enjoy the ones you love today (and everyday).

Treadmill peeker...

I love checking out people's running blogs as I am becoming more of a runner everyday. They are very inspiring and informative.

More than that, I find myself comparing my times, weight, work outs, etc. to these bloggers. And 9 times out of 10, I am slower and work out less than these people. To everyone but me, that makes sense. They are true runners with running blogs. I am just getting started. Of course they are running faster and longer than me.

As I was reading a new blog that I found about a runner - I discovered a new way that I compare myself to others. I am a treadmill peeker. If there is someone running on the treadmill next to me, I check out how fast they are going, for how long they are running, and the distance they have ran. I totally compare my stats to theirs.

I always feel a little competitive when I am treadmill peeking. If they are running faster than me, I feel defeated. It's a ridiculous. I have tried to break myself of this habit. But, as soon as a I go on a little break from treadmill peeking - I glance over and see that I am running faster than the person next to me. That's a win for me...so it perpetuates the cycle.

So that's it...I am a treadmill peeker. And I am pretty sure I always will be. It's just a part of my competitive nature.

Resolution follow up...

It's the second month of 2010 so I figured I should do a little follow up to the resolutions I set mid-way through January.

1. I am on my way to finishing the couch to 5k running program. I did week 6, day 1 tonight. So far so good. I should have no problem finishing by my birthday. And I definitely need some new scrubs so that is great motivation.

2. I haven't started the 30 day shred yet. That will come soon enough. I have until June 1st to finish that so I have some time.

3. This is the BIG one. I got offered a job in Columbia today. And it's a WONDERFUL job. It's MRI which will be some new training in a different modality of radiology. I am so excited about this, but I am also sad to be leaving the job that I have had for the last 4-5 years...and the people I have developed relationships with here in KC for the last 7 years that I have lived here. However, I will be moving back to my family which I cannot begin to explain how happy I am about that.

4. I am surviving the distance between Justin and myself right now. Luckily, I only have a couple of more weeks to survive the distance. And then at that point, my focus will be on surviving living with the 'rents for a bit, renting our house, and everything that goes along with those two things.

5. I have been tracking my mileage on on sparkpeople.com so I can see if I make it to 500 miles in 2010. So far, I am at 17.39 miles for the year. That is not 10 miles a week like I was hoping for, but I know as the year goes on I will up my mileage so some weeks I will have more than 10/week.

6. We are slowly, but surely working on our credit card debt. Not much to update there.

7. I did not blog at all last week so I think that means I have failing at the whole blogging 3x/week thing. I will keep working on this also. :) I am sure I will have a lot to blog about as I start the transition of moving back to my hometown and starting a brand new job. I can hope so anyway, right?? :)