ICU Nurse it is

 Hi everyone!!

I am just here checking in quickly. I almost feel bad checking in as it has been an eternity since I posted!!! UGH! Life has been insane the past two years!

I just wanted to pop in and report that I have officially graduated from Nursing School and have accepted a position in the ICU.

Thank you all for your immense support, the messages and the supportive notes all along!!!

That's the official photo above! No matter how old you are; you can always make a mid-life pivot!! I am sooo super happy!!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and I will be checking in more often next year for sure!

Happy holidays ya'll!!!

Hugs!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Happy Wednesday!

Today I am joining in Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce and the Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop with Pennie.

1. Do you like the beach? I absolutely love the beach!! Any beach!!! anywhere!! When I traveled for work I was lucky to be near beaches and was able to visit a beach at least every night. Now that I am in nursing school I don't see many beaches but I plan to visit some in the future! My favorite will always be Stone Harbor, NJ. We have traveled there almost every year since I was a baby! This picture is from Stone Harbor last year; I went parasailing with my niece Kyleigh.

How far do you have to drive to get to the nearest beach? Stone Harbor is about 8 hours from my home but so very worth the drive!

Your least favorite thing about the beach? The only least favorite thing about the beach is when biting flies are present. They are only there certain times of the year when the trade winds are blowing a certain way but they are awful!! I HATE bug spray at the beach!

Last beach trip you took? I guess my nursing trip to Nicaragua counts for a beach trip. We could not swim in the water but we did take a boat trip around Lake Nicaragua. It was pretty amazing to say the least!

2. Are you known for making waves or are you more of a 'go along to get along' kind of person? Explain. I like to believe I am a "go along with" kind of person every though I have some tendencies toward OCD and controlling behaviors. I am definitely working on these things as I do not want to be THAT person!

3. A favorite song that in some way references the beach? Toes in the water by Zac Brown Band is my very favorite tune for the beach!!



A favorite book and/or movie with a beach-y setting? I think I love any book written by Kristen Hannah. She has written at least 16 books and almost all have a beach theme1 I love her books!

4.Tuesday is National Simplicity Day...what's a simple pleasure you've enjoyed this week? I have enjoyed sitting in my hammock chair on my porch! It is sooo relaxing and I love every second spent swinging! What's something you could eliminate from your life to make things simpler? I honestly think my life at this poit is as simple as it can be. I have made sure of this because school takes up so much time!

5. What's something you love to do? Do you do it often? Why or why not? I love to read for fun and this summer (one school break) has allowed me to do this a lot! I have read so many books already! I am so happy about that!

6. Insert your own random thought here...I will leave you with the picture of my very favorite beach ever! This is Aruba!! Ahhhhh...

Thanks for hosting this Annie and I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

4th of July Part 2

Hey everyone! Welcome to part two of the Fourth of July post!

We decided to do an evening pontoon ride with the whole family out to the middle of the lake to watch the fireworks. We went out early and just anchored in the middle of the lake until it got dark enough for the fireworks to start. Here is the back of the boat… Left to right is my father, my sister‘s husband Steve, my nephew Ryan, my niece Aly, and my niece Kyleigh.

And here is the front of the boat… Left to right my sister Susan, my mom, my niece Jessica, my great niece Leighton, and my sister Kerry.

here are just a couple fireworks…

Ahhhhhh…I love the reflection on the lake!

On the actual holiday we had another visitor join us… my Aunt Marti. She came to spend the day and we all went for a pontoon ride. She was being goofy and posing with her hands on her cheek. Lol!

cute picture of my dad with his dog…

I love this re-creation… My parents dog Gracie is a year old now. We actually re-created the picture almost to the date of when they got her a year ago. Man she grew up quick!! What a sweetie she is though!

Little cutie patootie out on the patio… She loved this little beach chair.

this young man went with my father and played in the closest to the pin on Fourth of July holiday. There’s a small nine hole course at my parents lake and every Fourth of July they have closest to the pin. This young man actually won it this year!!! Sooo awesome!!! He was 5 feet 4 inches! Yay Ryan! He got $117 which was half the donations collected!

Winner winner chicken dinner!!!! Yay

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week!!!

Sending so many hugs!!! Love ya’ll!!

4th of July Part 1

Hi everyone!! I promised myself that I was going to post these earlier. I ended up spending last week trying to get things together to start the fall semester. I can’t even believe it’s almost here… We start in about five weeks. There was just a few things that I had to make sure I got done so I took the time to get those organized. This is it guys… My last semester! At least my last semester fingers crossed… Ha ha!

So wanted to share with you a little bit of my Fourth of July. I hope you all had an amazing holiday… I know I did! I pray that you all spent quality time with family and friends that you love.

We wanted to re-create a picture of these two little crazies. This is what I love about these kids so much… Every year they really embrace the red, white and blue and show so much spirit dressing up! And as you see they’re still wearing the same socks from five years ago! How cute are they??? My older niece, their sister, does not participate to the extent that they do… Lol.

as most of you know if you follow my blog, every year we do a pontoon parade at my parents lake. Everyone decorate their pontoons and different themes. We’ve done some really fun and awesome themes in the past. You can use the search bar on the right of my blog and search for pontoon parade. You’ll see we’ve done this for many years and we’ve come up with some pretty creative decoration ideas for the boat.

This year we decided to just go with good old red white and blue for the Fourth of July.  Here we are all on the boat ready to drive out to the bay where we were meeting until it got dark and we began the parade.

A closer shot of everyone huddled together…

This is my older sister she came for the pontoon fun! She also brought along her daughter my adorable niece Jessica and my very first great-niece Leighton who is 2 years old! They were in bed as this parade was not going to begin until at least 9:30 PM

we purchased this blowup and light up eagle as part of our Decour this year. I got these fantastic Christmas lights that are LED and you use your phone to make them any color you want! They came in super handy for the red white and blue color! I love that I can use my Christmas lights at multiple times of the year.

That’s my Dad driving and my adorable nieces and nephew behind him!

The morning after the pontoon parade there was a pancake breakfast benefit the ski club at the lake. We went down and had delicious pancakes and sausage and we didn’t even have to cook them ourselves.

Here is my sister and the two peeps that missed the boat parade last night. They were definitely game to come down for pancakes with us! What a bunch of cuties they are!

More of the crew after enjoying their pancakes!

As we ate our breakfast we got to watch the ski club practice their moves. They actually practice on land before they try to do it on their skis.

These are my two nieces Aly and Jessica with my great niece Leighton for her very first tube ride. She did not enjoyed in the beginning but once we got the boat moving, she really did have fun.

here is my other niece Kyleigh and my nephew Ryan having a little tubing fun!!!

These two and the dog appeared to be contemplating life…

A little paddleboard ride…

And a little tumbling fun on the mat…

This is everyone loaded on the boat getting ready for a slow pontoon ride. The dog was so excited to snuggle up next to Aly.

dog selfie anyone? You gotta love Gracie!! Such a cutie!!

The pontoon ride put this one to sleep too…

Gracie had so much fun playing on the mat with the kids…

These two took a little JetSki ride together… This is the first year the kids have really been able to drive it alone. They need to have an adult with them but they are allowed to drive it. Maybe next year they can take it alone? That’s all up to Poppy…

I know this was a really heavy photo post and I didn’t wanna forget any of the good pics so I’m gonna make a part one and part two.

I truly hope you all had a fantastic holiday and got to relax and enjoy yourselves as well.

Sending so many hugs to everyone!

Thankful Thursday

I have to say for this thankful Thursday I am very thankful for my family, friends, and health. 

But, most of all, I am thankful that I had my sweet cat Nermal in my life for the short six years I had him. As most of you know I had to put him to sleep recently and it has been sooo hard!! I am sad daily but I am trying to just focus on the fact that I was just lucky to have him in my life. 

He was such a super sweet, funny, crazy cat and he truly was my snuggle muffin!!! Actually, he was everyone’s snuggle muffin! He snuggled and groomed all my other cats daily and snuggled me too! I think they are still trying to figure out who should groom them now…ha! I miss him everyday but am grateful that my other cats are still in my life even though no one has yet to step up and become a snuggler yet. Lol!

I hope he is so happy and healthy again up there at that Rainbow Bridge because she is sooo very missed everyday here on Earth both by me and the other kitties!!!!

I love and miss you my sweet Nermal!!! I am so grateful I had the time I did with you in my life!!!

Hugs! 

Friday Five

Happy Friday everyone! Not only is it Friday but it’s a Friday before a holiday… Could it be any better day of the week? Nope, not possible!!!

As you’re reading this I am headed to my parents house for the Fourth of July weekend! It will be a weekend full of family and fun in the lake and I cannot wait to start it. I promise I will be posting a lot.

Let’s get started for my Friday five…

1.  This is gonna look like it’s an advertisement for Aldi’s but it’s not. Or, maybe it is as I’ve been finding so many things lately that I love there. I found this awesome tin in the toy aisle.  My family has always played the license plate game on trips ever since we were little kids. We would just keep track on a piece of paper when we were kids. Now that we are adults, we all have a download app that we use on our phones. But this magnetic game looks amazing. It has these cute little spongy license plates that are magnets and you stick them onto the state when you see that license plate. The state license plates are not flimsy at all… This is really a quality car game. It was only $5.99 at Aldi‘s. there were other car games too but this is the only one I purchased… I recommend you run and get yourself one!

 

2. This next item also comes from Aldi‘s. I can’t recommend that you run and get it because it was on an end aisle with a bunch of other lemon things and it was limited time only. I actually went back to purchase more because I love them so much and my Aldi‘s is all sold out. I think these were like $8.99? When you love something you have to buy multiples because it just may not be there the next time you go back. If you like lemon these are a dream come true! 

3. And I promise this is not an ad for Aldi‘s so the last item that I love this week is the last item from Aldi‘s. They always have the cutest and most fun cat and dog toys. I got my cats two toys this week each were $7.99. My cats adore them.

This first one is white and has a battery. You push that little white button and it spins around and shoots a laser around your house. It runs for about three minutes and then it shuts itself off. My cats are obsessed with this thing!

This second toy that’s a blue has no battery. You fill it with treats and wobbles on the floor like those old weebles used to do. When the cats bat at the toy or balls on it with their paws,  it drops treats out. Best $8 ever spent- lol!!!


4. My fourth obsession is this amazing honey. I just picked this up on the way home from Nicaragua. We bought it in the airport in Iberia, Costa Rica. It is absolutely to die for!!!! I wish I had bought more!!! I have been eating a small drizzle a day on a small plain cracker… it is sooo yummy! I will be seeing if they will mail order this product!!!!

5. Lastly I will leave you with my favorite summer pie recipe!! I believe I got this recipe from a blogger many years ago; if it was you please reach out to me so I can give you your deserved credit. It is delicious!!! And easy!!! You mix together 1 tub of whipped topping (I used low-fat generic brand), 6 oz frozen lemonade concentrate (I could only find pink lemonade so I used that), and one can of sweetened condensed milk. Mix that all together well, pour into a graham cracker crust, and freeze! That’s it! I promise it is delicious!!! I sometimes add extra lemon zest or lemon concentrate because I love “puckery” lemon flavor.

That’s what it looks like prior to freezing. Top with lemon zest or thin lemon slices if you have them! It is my absolute favorite pie for a hot summer day!!!!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July holiday!!! 

Hugs to you all!!!!

Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4

Looking back... 

Hello everyone!! Today I will be joining Annie for her  Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4. I am so happy to be joining in for the first time ever! Annie’s friend Toni started this and she continues it weekly in here memory! I am grateful to be able to join in!!

1. What music were your parents listening to when you were a kid? When I was a kid my Dad listened mostly to country. That was 60’s and 70’s so there was a lot of  Dolly Parton, Oak Ridge Boys, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Roger Miller, etc. Let’s say old country. Does that music bring back memories for you? It absolutely does…I still know all the words to all the songs.

2. What was your favorite meal and beverage as a teenager? As a teenager I loved a Big Mac!!! We didn’t really get to eat out a lot so it was a special treat when we got to go to McDonald’s for dinner. I was always so excited when I could get a Big Mac and Coke. Is it still or have things changed for you? It is definitely not the same now! I actually had a big Mac about three weeks ago and it was awful. I don’t think I remember it that much better than it was so Big Mac’s have changed. I remember them being delicious and it really and truly was not delicious. Anyone else notice this or is it just me??? I guess the good part is that I will not ever get another Big Mac again. LOL

3. As a teen did you live in a city, country, small town? I lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh called Bethel Park. I could not have picked a better hometown to grow up. I have a lot of hometown pride still to this day. I love my Bethel Park Blackhawks and I love the town itself. I still live nearby in adjacent town called Bridgeville. I was a majorette in the band and loved every second of it.  This picture recently came up on my Facebook: it is of our majorette squad in 1985. We were performing for something the school organized called Telerama. I am the one in the back row alone…lol!

4. Would you like to live in your hometown today? I think I loved it so much growing up there if I had children, I would definitely still be living there!!

Thanks again Annie for hosting!!! This was so much fun and I hope to be joining in each week!!! Can’t wait to make some new friends!!!!

Hugs to everyone! Have a great week!!!