on the mend

i've been sick for over a week! henzley is also sick and jason is starting to get there. at first, i really thought i had swine flu. especially since i've been around patients that have it. but, thankfully it's just a really bad head cold. henzley's asthma was really bad, and we had to get refills on all her meds. she also has an ear infection on top of everything. it all cost a whopping $279! i couldn't believe it. but, what are ya gonna do? she is doing so much better. thank goodness for medicine. i think i may need some antibiotics soon.
i'm really excited for halloween, i just love this time of year. henzley has been going back and forth between what she wants to be. duck or cinderella? she is so funny. jason is studying for exam 3, he is such a trooper:)
we also found out that we will need to move out b/c our landlady needs to sell the house. we'd love to buy it, but just can't right now. we'll probably be in an apartment by january, ugh. i absolutely loathe moving! and we'll have to get a storage unit b/c we have so much crap. but, on the bright side we'll be saving alot of money. that's it for now:)

long time gone

wow. it's been awhile since i've posted! i've been worn out from working full time. i'm thankful to have a job, but it's been exhausting! i really like my profession (xray technologist) and i'm getting used to doing procedures i haven't seen since i was a student. my coworkers are mostly guys, so that was kinda hard to get used to. but, they're like brothers to me now..i often roll my eyes! henzley has been doing really well at preschool, though i miss her like crazy. she is learning chinese(mandarin) and spanish. she sings songs for us in both languages and counts, too. it's so much fun to see what she's learning. her teachers are having a hard time getting her to take naps. i think it's b/c the room needs to be darker. jason is also doing well with his new job. we are trying to buckle down and pay off our debts. we are sending off a check on monday to pay off our car! we are really excited and hope that we can get a new car for jason soon. his car needs so much work, it really wouldn't be worth it though. we hope to get a small car like a toyota or ford. oh and i got some new shoes for work. i'm really excited b/c they are awesome shoes-merrell's-and they were only $35! alot of medical workers wear these shoes, including surgeons, b/c they are super comfortable. alrighty, hopefully it doesn't take me so long to update next time!

healthy now!

i started work on 4/6 and caught a horrible virus! it was probably the flu b/c i had body aches, fever and just felt terrible. jase caught it and then henz. she developed and ear infection immediately and jase and i had upper resp. infections w/ bronchitis. at first, i was determined not to go to the doctor and get antibiotics. i wanted to see if i could get over all the gunk on my own. i wanted to not 'overuse antibiotics' b/c you hear it everywhere. i finally decided to go after i developed another fever. then jase and henz went the next day. we're all three on antibiotics now. and we're feeling much better, after 2 1/2 weeks of feeling crappy!

my sis and her hubby came w/ the kids last weekend. we had such a good time. here are some pics.

easter and after

easter was okay. henz was sick and i was trying to relax from my first week of work. i was stressed out and not in the mood to dye easter eggs! we did hunt for eggs after church and it was a pretty day. that night we went to watch jase sing in a two stake choir performance of the messiah. it was a great performance, they did such a wonderful job, it did not sound like a church choir! anyway i loved it. the whole time i had to wrestle with henz b/c she wasn't as entertained as i was:)
the next day at work, i had to get a DTap vaccination b/c i work in a high risk area. i do okay with the MMR, but the DTaP kills me! i was sore the whole week! and i also caught the horrible head cold that henz had. jase caught it too. body aches, low fever, runny nose...and now we both have a terrible cough. yuck. so, we didn't go to church today. too bad for henz, she felt fine!

so, i really like my new job. especially getting the paycheck! i get paid really well:) thank goodness b/c i bust my butt!

by the way, i got contacts, but they were too dry. i have moderately dry eyes..the doc ordered some new ones...we'll see how they work!

training

so, i started work on monday. it has been tiring, stressful, overwhelming, heartwrenching, educational...blah,blah,blah. i'm actually catching on pretty quickly, b/c i've worked on the same equipment they have. the worst part is finding my way around. all the hallways look the same, and it took me awhile to figure out where the bathroom and breakroom were. i hate being lost. really hate it. but i did quite a bit of exams by myself today. i actually had a patient nominate me for 'star recognition'. which means i'll get a little star pin for my badge. some people have them pinned all over their badge holders. it felt nice to be recognized for being nice!
the most absolute, worse part about having to work is making my little girl go to preschool all day. here is how our week has gone so far:
monday: "bye mommy!" with a big smile on her face.
tuesday: "i'm not going to school today mommy..." with some apprehension on her face.
wednesday: "AHHHH!!!! I WANT TO STAY AT MY HOUSE!!! I'M NOT GOING TO SCHOOL!" face red, tears smeared all over her face, kicking, screaming, refusing to get in the car....as i try not to cry myself.
thursday: "i don't wanna go to school mommy" with the saddest face ever. tears welling up, lip out. i gave her a popsicle...don't judge me..
tomorrow preschool is closed for good friday so henz is going to stay at my friends house who lives down the street. henz and my friends son LOVE each other, so she is so excited to go there tomorrow and i hope there won't be any tears.
jase feels a little anxious about her going to preschool too, but he doesn't drop her off in the morning b/c he has to leave earlier to catch the train. it is absolute torture to have to leave my child with a stranger. i never thought it would be this hard. she has a great time and the school is great(she gets to learn spanish and chinese, and they even teach tae kwon do, not that i care she learn that, but she may have fun), she'll get used to it and we will too:)

a new era

well, i start my new job on monday and my little girl will go to daycare. i tried everything in my power to NOT ever send my child to daycare, but it has to be done. she is so excited and i'm mostly okay, but kinda sad. i enjoy cuddling on the couch when we wake up. i love sharing our breakfasts. i like having "lazy days" where we stay in our jammas all day. somedays, we live at the playground. and there are those days where we run errands everywhere and we both crash for nap time. i LOVE naptime. i won't get naptime at the hospital. ugh. i don't want to be a working mom.
i will only be full time for the 1st two weeks for training, and after that it will be "on call". so, it won't be so bad, but henz will still be going to daycare a few days a week b/c it's more of a preschool for kids her age.
i know she is ready and i'm glad this is happening when she's 3 and not 3 mths old. it would be alot worse. i know she will really enjoy it, i'll just miss her:(

a little girl

three years ago today, i was HUGE. i was having contractions constantly and VERY uncomfortable. my feet were so swollen that when i walked, the tops of my feet would jiggle. on april 2nd at 2:35 pm, my sweet baby girl was born.

my life changed forever. she has been such a joy to me. she makes me smile everyday and she has a heart of gold. jase and i love to spoil her with hugs and kisses.

she is turning 3 this week and i'm so proud of her. she is so smart and loves to learn. i can't wait to watch her grow up and be a part of all her accomplishments.

happy birthday sweetheart:)

new job!!

as some of you have read, i've been job hunting since december. yesterday, i had my first job interview in almost 10 years! it went really well, the radiology manager was really energetic and it rubbed off on me so i hope i didn't seem hyperactive to the other radiology supervisor that was with him! i guess they liked me b/c they offered me the job! it's a PRN position, those of you who don't know what that means, it's basically 'as needed'. which works out great for me b/c you don't receive benefits with that position which means i get paid more(i'm on jase's insurance), and also, it's not everyday so i can spend time with henz. and this is a very large hospital, which i prefer to work at, i will be doing a very broad range of xray work(portables,er,or,fluoro,outpatient...)and if you're worried about where henz is gonna go when i'm at work, she will go to a daycare/preschool. it's a great place where they have all kinds of classes and activities, which i'm sure she'll love everybit of it.
jase was really excited when i told him. i also informed him that he's gonna have to buy me a steak dinner at outback tonight! oh by the way, i'll go through orientation hopefully the beginning/mid april. i'll of course put up a posting when i start, so i can fill everyone in on the juicy details of rotten feet and colon-blows...hehe. that was gross, but anyone else in the medical field will say "yeah, she pretty much got it right"...

website

i was browsing the UALR photography website and i saw myself in one of my photos! i took this photo for a digital class. here is the link:
http://ualr.edu/art/index.php/home/minors/photography/

makes-up

henz played with my makeup today, it was super cute! and hard to clean up:)

actuarially...

jase has been taking exams every may and november since 2003. he is working in the actuary field, technically as an "actuary student", but in order to be a true actuary he will have to pass 7 exams. he is currently studying for his 3rd. he has a mathematics degree w/ a minor in statistics. and let me tell you, the stuff he studies is like from another planet. i recognize some letters everynow and then, but the word problems are crazy. here is an example from some of his study material:

C(S,K1,T) - C(S,K2,T) > K2-K1

P(S,K1,T) - P(S, K2,T) < K2-K1

okay...so that's the best that i could do b/c there are some keys i didn't even know existed on a

keyboard.

check out this sentence:

"An equivalent way of expressing convexity is that the price of the K2-strike option is less than the linearly interpolated prices of the other two options"

is that even english?! what amazes me is that my husband understands it...i am absolutely horrible at math. i'm not exaggerating in the slightest. i can hardly do simple addition and subtraction. it really is sad. i'm not sure how i even graduated high school, maybe they felt sorry for me, i dunno. but, i am just glad my husband can do it....i would've had to get my kids tutors when they reached 1st grade!

jase is starting to get into 'study mode'. it means very few dates and many notes and books laying around. oh and he has a series of dvd's he watches. it becomes kinda lonely and boring around here. i have a few projects i pick up when he studies, so i can keep myself entertained. right now, he is studying an hour at home in the evenings after henz goes to bed. this will only go on for a couple more weeks, and then his study load will really increase. we probably won't see his cute face after he comes home for work. his plan is to lock himself up in the guest room. i'm really thankful that he tries so hard. (sigh). may is still far away...

unemployed

during college, when i finally decided that i needed to pick out a profession and stop taking "fun" classes (intro to running, intro to piano, aerobic dance...), i decided to pick a profession in the medical field. i figured that the baby boomers were getting older and would need healthcare, and everyone always needs healthcare.

did i want to be a nurse? heck no. did i want to be a respiratory therapist? only if i wanted to throw up everyday. i had worked at a chiropractic clinic for a short while during college and helped with processsing the xrays. well, i fell in love with it. so, i decided that i definately wanted to go that direction.

i completed the prerequsites i needed and i applied. needless to say, i got accepted into a program. not just any program. uams was where i had wanted to go learn for a long time. when i was younger, i had the ambition to be a doctor. but, not long after i had that desire, i decided that i didn't want to be in school for such a long time. i wanted to be a wife and mother.

so, the 2 year radiology technologist program was so perfect for me. i could get married, have children, work anywhere my husband would take us. or if i ever needed to work i would have that on my side. it was a fail proof plan.

i have a great transcript, 7 years of experience, excellent refferals....but no job! i've been looking since december. i've had one lead that ended in a 'no go'.

it's been really frustrating. we have debt, like everyone else, in this sad economy. we'd like to pay some of it off before we have more children. we don't want to have to put our kids in daycare. we really want to expand our family, but we just can't afford it right now. babies, if you don't know, are expensive. ugh. bummer. hire me?

"fruggle" rock...

my hubby and i love thrift stores. we have always found the coolest stuff at those places! we love discount items, period. but, sometimes we buy things that we think is a great deal and it ends up being more of a hassle. such as, i went to ikea a couple of months ago and bought a bed frame in the "as is" section. it's black wrought iron and gorgeous! and it was only $50! what a steal right? well, i got home and realized i didn't have the side rails the bed sits on...i'm such a dufus. so, i call the ikea store and they find us the rails at the ikea store in houston for like $40. we call our friends to pick them up for us and being the sweethearts they are, went to pick them up for us. this was back in january. our bed is still on the floor....we just have to arrange to get them here:)

AND...about a month ago, i went to the salvation army to look at rugs. i found one for $50! it was in great shape, cute and all geometric looking..so i bought it..what a steal! i got home and found a note stapled to the back: returned to store, bad odor. okay....so, i sniffed it. it wasn't bad. did i mention i don't have a great sense of smell? jase got home and was like, what is that funky smell?! of course, it was the rug. so, we tried to return it after febreeze, resolve, oxyclean, and more febreeze, but it had been too long and i had already thrown away the piece of paper from the store saying it had a bad odor when i bought it. bummer. we arm & hammered the heck out of it with baking soda. it doesn't smell anymore:)

so, this past saturday, we went to another thrift store and found an almost brand new couch and love seat set! the style we've always wanted. we totally bought them. they had them listed for $350, but they had like 2 cushions missing, so we talked them down to $150. what a deal!! hehehe. we thought, hey we'll just get some made! so, yesterday and today i've been calling furniture stores and upholstery shops to see if we can get cushions made. and after 50 phone calls and a couple of trips, an upholstery man is coming tomorrow to see if he can help us with custom made cushions. which will be interesting...

is it all worth it? i dunno. but we have a story for every piece of furniture and decoration we own!

fotografia

one of my all time favorite hobbies is photography. i have actually taken classes and i had a good side job doing it since then. i have sold a handfull, and have a few on display in a couple of places. i also won an award at the college i was taking classes. i mostly take pics of people, but i think my true passion is stilllife. needless to say, i love it.

my favorite subject right now is my daughter. i love having more than a few random shots of birthdays, playing outside or bathtub pics. i love having pics of her in her "element". she picked what she wore for these pics and i didn't really tell her what to do. here are some i took the other day, which i'm sure i'll love forever. i tried posting more, but the computer wouldn't let me.

'sewin' love

i have always wanted to sew, sew well anyway. i have sewn in the past, and i love it, i just don't get in enough practice. my mom recently traded me her really nice, brand new sewing machine for my crappy, 'easy-bake' ish, one. i'm still super thrilled, thanks mom! in our new house we have a window bench, which needed a seat cushion. so...i bought some fabric and pulled out the sewing machine. here is my creation:

mr. chicken and mr. grape

normally, a kid will play with their food. but, Henz will taunt her food before she eats it:) today, she cracked us up!! we were eating lunch and she was playing with her chicken. she said "what are you doing mr. chicken?" she made it walk around her plate and on her cup, then onto her arm. she made the chicken walk up her arm and into her mouth. then she picked up a grape and said "where is mr. chicken, mr. grape? hmmm...maybe he's in the mouth?" and then she ate it! it was so hilarious! then she announced that mr. chicken and mr. grape were together in her stomach...oh my...... it was super cute...

wrinkly

today Henz, my daughter, and i went to walmart to go grocery shopping. i hate shopping. i really hate shopping if Henz is in a bad mood. surprisingly, today she was in a good mood! shopping was actually alright for me, for once:)
well, she was singing and talking and caught some little old ladies' attention. the lady came over and started talking to Henz. well Henz then informed the old lady that she was "wrinkly". i just laughed. and the old lady didn't understand her. i thought about lying b/c i didn't want the old lady to know what she had told her. but, i told her that my daughter called her wrinkly! thankfully the old lady thought it was funny, apparently at some point in a woman's life she will brag about how old she is. this lady was 88 and well aware of her wrinkly state!

i give in.

i tried to create a blog on here a year or two ago and it was a little harder than it was today. i decided back then that i wasn't going to do a blog, but the need to have one has arrived! i have moved away from my family and friends and so i need to keep them updated. so. here goes!