Quilting Away

So I decided to take a quilting class this spring cause I really want to quilt and if I don't take the class I'll just make up how to do it and it won't be so great as it could be. For anyone that's seen me in a classroom setting they know that I'm not the most teachable person. I like knowing how to do something and if I don't some times I get stuck on my pride and pretend like I do know everything. I guess I haven't kicked all my teenage habits yet, but I'm working through it. Anyway I'm really excited to quilt cause I got the cutest fabric (See picture) and its gonna brighten up the house so much plus I'll have something awesome to do again. The quilt shop I'm taking the class at is owned by a couple of members and they are so nice. It makes me want a quilt shop of my own, but then I don't know how to quilt yet so one step at a time. 

Also I'm looking forward to Pi day which is next monday, but we get to celebrate on friday. It's gonna be awesome. All I need to do now is go find some amazing prizes to give the best pie makers. Then on sunday I'm gonna be so lonely cause Steve goes to Chicago for 2 weeks. So not looking forward to that. 

I really need to get a job thats year round so I'm not so bored and crazy when Steve has to keep traveling. I've been thinking about going back to school. So crazy considering how awful of a student I am, but if I get myself to keep a schedule maybe I can do it this time. I was thinking about trying the radiology technician program, but there's a few things that complicate that, 1. I have no idea where I'll be next year 2. It means taking out more loans 3. Studying is not fun and I've vowed to cut everything not fun out of my life. But I would need to do some prerequisites before I could get into the program anyway so it might be good to start school next fall and get that part out of the way. 


Anyway this was a little rambly but I'm trying harder to not go so long between blogs so who knows it could get much worse, but at least I'm entertained. Anyway in 3 weeks when I finish the quilt I'll show the finished project unless I hopelessly mess it up which is quite likely seeing as just cutting out blocks was quite a challenge.

A Few Lingering Thoughts

 So I just wanted to post some animals I made for my nephews and niece. I was so bored making these animals for no reason at all, but then I thought to make them for family and it was fun again. Plus when the owl turned out so freakin awesome I couldn't help but be overjoyed. I've discovered that I actually really love hand sewing things. Its fun and a bit relaxing for me. I did the detail on the scarf on the puppy too. I just love plaid.  

 This is my awesome flower I made for my only niece Lana. It was out of an old shirt and it kinda makes me wish that I was little again so I could where cute stuff like that. 

Anyway. I felt like posting just so anyone I don't happen to talk to that reads this blog (yep all 5 of you) knows that Steve and I are alive over here in the flatlands. Also I did get the mosquito Abatement job like I sorta hoped and sorta dreaded. I am going to be the educational Assistant. So the good news is that I get to work during the day and see Steve as long as he's here. The bad news is gosh durn it all I don't get to have fun in NYC. At least not until October when my job ends. 

I also wanted the world to know that I think toothbrush holders are disgusting. I think its very unsanitary for toothbrushes to touch when they go in different peoples mouths and I wish someone would think of a solution to this. Of course our solution is having an awesome electric one, but whenever I go in someone's bathroom and see toothbrush holders it makes me cringe. 

My other big thing is taking the blender completely apart to wash it. I never knew people didn't until I saw a roommate just washing it out all together. I think its impossible to get completely clean that way and refuse to use other peoples blender cause its just gross. Now that I'm reading all this written down I'm kinda coming off as a germophob, but I do live with a medical Student so I should probably be much worse. (Sadly I've felt this way about both things much longer than I've known Steve.) Anyway thats about it. Just wanted to vent about random pet peeves tonight. Hope it was mildly interesting otherwise I'm just sorry your still reading. Have a good night.

You Can't Catch Me I'm The Gingerbread Man

 So Once again I've neglected the blog, but its not because stuff hasn't been happening and there's nothing to blog about its the fact that I only have pictures of crafts to post and if I post those then the post will be all about the craft and not our lives. I'm not really sure how interesting that is to most of the readers. But don't get me wrong I'm probably still gonna post those type of posts. I just wanted to make sure there are a few posts about what is actually happening in our lives so here goes.

Steve is in the last few weeks of his Internal Medicine rotation. Its been a good one, but very stressful. He was studying for the Step 2 practical exam and so he was super busy. He took that test last week in Atlanta and I bet he did awesome. (I would know since I helped him prepare. I was the one who got to pretend to be all these practice cases from his book so he could practice tons of different scenarios. It was fun sorta!)  

So with that test behind us I figured most of the stress would be behind us, but we keep looking ahead at the crazy schedule we have this year and have to realize that its gonna be a crazy year. He is now preparing for the written half of Step 2 which he takes in June and preparing to apply for residency which is no joking matter. At the moment he is still narrowed in on doing Emergency Medicine, but without any actual experience in it its hard to say if he'll like it. 

So here is our schedule for Steve at the moment he has his Family Medicine and Pediatrics rotations coming next and right after they are done is when he takes the Step 2. Then we are flying out for the weekend to go Steve's parents 50th wedding anniversary in Colorado. After that quick trip he is hoping to have an Emergency rotation, but at the moment we're still searching for one. It is a really awful month to get rotations so its been a wee bit challenging.  Then August is when he starts his Surgery rotation in NY. It is 3 months long and sadly I might not even get to go (Explanation farther down)which is gonna make those 3 months really terrible aside from the fact that surgery rotations as a general rule are awful anyways. (Surgeons tend to be the meanest people in medicine and take it upon themselves to make everyone around them suffer, no joke.) Then he luckily has locked in a Emergency rotation in November and then Applying for rotations and finishing up some elective rotations and then graduation. Yay! Thats our year at the moment.

So the reason I don't get to go to NY is because I hopefully will have a job at this point and will be working full time this summer at the local mosquito abatement. If I do get the job then we might even have enough money to live in NY without going totally broke. I don't find out til next week if I got it but it sure would be nice after over a year of crappy random jobs with no structured hours. I want a job so bad. 

Anyway here's an explanation of the random pictures I posted (No post should be without a picture) After our crazy big storms here the park near our house has really deep snow. I'm talking over a foot and its so fun to watch Sophie run and leap like a deer or jack rabbit through the snow. I think she could be happy forever living in the park with the squirrels. So we took a bunch of pictures and here's a sample of them. (We took tons of pictures but at the risk of being one of those couples where everything's about their dog I opted to just post a few.)

New Spice Rack

I found this Spice rack at an estate sale. And yes I know that I vowed never to go to those or garage sales again, but what can ya do! Anyway its was only 7$. and I probably could have talked her down if I knew how,but I don't so Thats still not bad. IT has these cute little glass jars for each spice and  I couldn't pass it up. 

S

 So I had to empty all the jars of old spices some of which were nasty others obviously not what the label said they were and here's hoping none of them were drugs :) That took over an hour with such teeny tiny jars. The jars didn't wan to dry either so I had to use a paper towel to finish the job. Sanded and painted the rack black filled the jars with my spices and Voila! Beautiful new spice rack in my kitchen. And I'm still waiting for the spicy smell to leave. Apparently filling jars puts a lot of scent in the air.

Desk Redo

So I don't have any great pictures of the desk before I redid it, but that's mostly because it wasn't great before. It looked more like a desk you'd find in a dorm room. Steve really really hated it and I tolerated it. So finally decided to try and make it a little prettier. I took the top shelves off and that made such a huge difference that I almost just left it like that, but I still wanted it to prettier and Steve flat out told me he didn't care what I did with hit cause it is mine and not his. So I first sanded it and I was so very lucky that my friend has a power sander, cause it would've taken forever. Then I painted it this light teal. It was actually really pretty after 2 coats of that so I almost just left it like that. Then I took some scrapbook paper and mod podged it to the top of the desk to look kinda like tiles. It came out so awesome that I can't believe it worked, Seriously most of my decorating and craft ideas are things I've seen other people do and liked, but I haven't seen anyone do this before. I was just thinking randomly of fun things to do to the desk and this popped into my head. After that I decided to glaze it. I'm still not sure if that was the best plan. I think I may have put too much on, but it still turned out good so I'm happy. And Steve doesn't hate the desk anymore.

Snowfest 2011

(I always have to take a picture of some of the buildings in Frankenmuth because they make me feel like I'm ready to go yodeling in the swiss alps!)

 This year I went to Snowfest in Frankenmuth with the Roys and it was fun, but I was a little disappointed in the sculptures. They didn't have as many cool ones and they had less  ice sculptures that. Most of them were business logos and boring. But all in all it was a great day to be outside and we had fun! Here are the two ice sculptures I liked most.

 Angry robot,                     Happy Robot

 For those of you having a hard time deciphering this sculpture its a shipwreck.

 Yeah for the Roys. They really are so fun and brighten up my life every time I see them. They're mom is especially awesome. This is one of the families I teach piano lessons for. They always surprise me how fast they learn. 

 I just loved the detail they put on this Ice cream sundae. Looks delicious!

 And the girls all just had to sit in the butterfly chairs. so very cute!

Snow Day!

 So last night a storm hit us and about half of America. The bad news was that it put a ton of snow in our driveway and Steve tried to drive the car through it anyway. The car got stuck right outside the garage and there it stayed for a few hours. Luckily some friends that are students picked him up on the nearby main road that Steve had to run to. When he came home at 2 the car was still in the driveway stuck. Of course I tried to move it, but seriously the snow was so deep under the car that I couldn't dig it out so it would move without someone pushing. We did get to try out the snowblower the landlady left here, but its just a little guy and now we think its broken cause the snow was just too much. Our front steps had the most snow. I was standing on snow here not the ground so don't worry it goes deeper. Fun fun fun! Luckily our landlady hired someone to plow our driveway so we didn't have to shovel for the rest of our life. It was an interesting day and the most snow I've seen other than in the mountains.