Vroom Vroom

Folks, I have a new baby! In a whirlwind of phonecalls and planning, on Monday, mom and dad brought home my NEW CAR! (Ok, it's not technically new, but pretty close-and it's new to me!) Thanks to a VERY GENEROUS and loving Gandfather- I am now the owner of his 2007 Honda Civic LX. It's AWESOME, and fancy, and much like this house, makes the old one PALE in comparison. Let's face it, the neon had more than it's fair share of problems. It was fine for my first car, and I learned a lot about car ownership (and maintenance) but this new one is like my grown-up car. It is the adult version of "Old Blue" (the civic Emily and I both learned to drive in when we turned 16). Basically I'm in love. How could I not be:

I've completed week 2 of my "Couch to 5 K". It's still hard, but my body doesn't totally fight it anymore, and it feels really great to be exercising again(or, to be exercising. period.).
Labor Day weekend, Bethany (and boyfriend Jay) and Liz, Charlie, and baby Belle were in town, so I actually got to socialize a bit. Last night I went out for dinner with friend Paven, who I haven't seen in months, so we had lots to catch up on. Wednesday, I fly to SEATTLE!!! September is shaping up to be pretty fantastic!

Outdoors

Here is the front porch with all my new lovelies:
And here is the patio, complete with furniture, big citronella candle, and plant:

Time

I was blessed this week to have 3 whole nights off! In a row! And while I've really enjoyed (and needed) the time off, it has flown by, and tomorrow I have to go back! So what have I been up to?
Well, I've completed 2 days of the "Couch-to-5K" workout program. It's basically a training program on a podcast (thing you listen to on the Ipod), that consists of intervals of walking and running. It's a nine week program that builds from week one, where you alternate walking for 90 seconds and running for 60 seconds for a total of 30 minutes, to week 9, where you run the whole 30 minutes (approximately 5k). Those of you who know me well know how much I despise exercise, and while I still do, this seems fairly manageable. We'll see if I stick with it. I have seen all different (and interesting) parts of our new neighborhood, and my body feels a little bit stronger already.
I also have been doing a little gardening. I bought some fall pansies and mums, and our front porch is bursting with greenery! (Pictures to come) I did get two bug bites on my foot- one on my big toe that ITCH, but that's ok! Hopefully I can keep all the plants alive until winter!
Last night I did some major quilt work. I still haven't gotten to any actual sewing yet, but we're getting close! I have completed the whole front half (by completed I mean cut out, ironed, and backed the squares), and tonight I'm gonna start on the back half:

Two weeks from today and I'm off to Seattle again! Yay!

Long Time, No See

That's because last week, I worked 6/7 days. That is too many. But my paycheck was AWESOME.
This week isn't a whole lot better, and we have had a full house all week (as in, 0 free rooms, filling up the empty ones as soon as we discharge someone). I'm on call tomorrow at 3pm, which means, more than likely, I will be working a 16 hour shift. I'm not really sure any of this is legal, and I know it's INSANE, but the other day, my boss stopped me in the hall and said that she had gotten more applause cards (appreciation from patients for great customer service) about me than anybody else. So I guess I'm handling the madness better than I think.
And just so you don't go feeling too sorry for me, here's a little story:
The other night at work, a new dad comes up to the desk and says "Get this- I got one baby momma in this room, and one baby momma in that room. This one knows, but the other chick doesn't. Ha." Um...what?! Congrats? I guess? And the two babies are lying there in the nursery, in cribs right next to each other, and don't even know that they are half-sisters and that this may be the only chance they get to meet--it's like something out of a movie!
This weekend was the annual Urbana Sweet Corn Festival- Delicious! Gotta love a lemon-shake-up!

As I previously mentioned, I was asked by the unit Educator to work on another bulletin board, and after another brainstorming session with Brittany, right before she moved to Iowa (:( ), I came up with an AWESOME board (if I do say so myself). See:
Full of Breastfeeding positions, Information about the Breastfeeding Clinic, Benefits of Breastfeeding, A "Resources" pamphlet for them to take, and much more!
Last night was one of my hardest nights to date. Let's just put it this way- the highlight of the evening was when I had to give an enema to a 400+ pound woman. Yeah. Yikes.
Anyway, I have the next two days off, thank GOD.

Creativity

As I've mentioned before, hobbies and creativity in general are not really my forte.
So at work we have this bulletin board. On it, we keep a running tally of the babies born each month. The staff takes turns being responsible for one month and coming up with something cute.
My lovely friend Brittany helped me on a shopping trip to Michael's, and it turned out pretty well:
The blue stars are for boy babies, and the red stars are for girl babies. We had a total of 211 born in the month of July! The board got a little crowded! And my boss was so impressed she asked that I come up with an even larger design for National Breastfeeding Awareness month (August)...so I have to be brilliantly creative again! (Gulp!)

WOW

As sleeping and working have become my life, I was very excited to come across this BED.
When I become a bajillionare, this WILL BE where I sleep!