Saturday Thankfulness

161.  Sleeping in till 8am

162.  Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings

163.  Tiny green tomatoes in the garden, promises of red to come

164.  Late night talks in the dark

165. Mr. Water's tears

166. Aunt Carol hugs

167. Feeling accepted

168. Cup of coffee and a Bible

169. New baking experiments that work

170.  First full-time paycheck in almost one and 1/2 years, coming Tuesday!

Remember this list?

Embarrassed that it has been so long since I worked on this...

140.  Forgiveness
141.  Nine months of survival
141.  Anniversaries
142.  Summertime
143.  Bike rides
144.  Eating from the garden
145.  Evenings off
146.  Weekends off
147.  Holidays off
148.  Finding satisfaction in my job
149.  Berries in season
150.  Friends who challenge me
151.  Open windows
152.  Air conditioning  when the windows aren't enough
153.  Friends who find their life-partner in each other
154.  Nieces
155. Nephews
156.  Wildflowers
157.  Airplanes that take me places
158.  Rediscovering my piano
159.  Girls' time, 2nd Tuesday of the month
160.  homemade peach cobbler topped with homemade ice cream

First harvest from the garden

T is for Travel

My college roomates three are all in the same area this summer.  This means I had to go see them, to complete our funny foursome.

I neglected to get a picture of all of us.  Oh, well.  I got a lot of pictures of other things, though. Here's a few for you.

When the thunder rolls, and the lightening strikes....

this is what the Blanshans see on their bikes:

(All of these were taken on our street. Thankfully, our house and trees were spared, except for a few negligible limbs.)

one year ago today....

One year ago today...

I became yours, your name became mine, and we were no longer two.

I never knew I could love someone so much, that that love could exponentiate itself  in a few fleeting days, that I could be brought-to-tears-overwhelmed with how much you love me, that my cup could overflow so generously. 

You are my favorite. 

Thank you for this year.  I love you.

Reasonable wedding cost- My story

I've recently gottten deeper into this whole saving money phenomenon.  As we just passed into the day of my one-year anniversary of my wedding (yes, it is late at night as I write this), I thought I'd share a few ways we put on a relatively inexpensive wedding, one year ago today.

First, let my disclaimer be that we created a lot of extra work by asking/allowing others to do things for us that we normally would have had to pay for.  I feel bad about some of that.  We had the near-perfect wedding and it was exactly like I pictured it and I was so very happy.  But I don't know if I would do it the same because of the stress it caused for others.

The things that were important to us where (which is a huge part of determining your cost):
     -having all the people we wanted there (small gatherings and Blanshans don't really go together).
     -Having a "different" wedding, doing things a little less traditional
     -Having my minister from TN there (this was our biggest splurge)

-We had it at a family location, basically free of charge.  But it was a heck of a lot of work.  This is the main one I'd consider changing if I had to do it all over again.  It turned out great, but the stress of it would have been greatly reduced if we hadn't had to do so much work to the farm beforehand.

-We purchased all the food ourselves, mostly at Sam's Club and Aldi.  We also kept it simple, which fit our personalities really.  I'm somewhat of a BBQ fanatic, so it made sense to have it at the wedding even if it is a little overdone.  Family also prepared the food for us for free.

-We used postcards for the invitations.  We got 500 of them (which was more than we needed) for about $60 from postcards.com

-I got a bridesmaid dress instead of a "real" wedding dress.  I loved my dress.  I'm not really a froofy flashy person, so a more simple dress fit me well.  My momma picked it out. :-)  It also helped that I found the dress I liked, then I found the store that had it for the cheapest.  So I got it for about $180 and got a ton of compliments on it.

-A family friend did the flowers as a present.  They turned out fantastic!  We used pretty simple arrangements.

-We used a photographer who was just getting into doing weddings.  We were her first one, so she gave us a great price.  And the pictures were wonderful!  We look through them all the time.

-The bigger things we bought, we planned to sell.  We bought nice tablecloths for the banquet tables, but we sold them on craigslist for just a tab bit less than we paid for them.  We also bought some paper lanterns for decorations that we intend to sell.  A friend used them for her wedding last fall, and I haven't pulled them out of the bag since.  I'll get to selling them eventually, because I'm sure someone would love them.

-We skipped the cake.  Neither one of us really like cake, so it seemed silly to pay a lot of money to have one.  We did cookies.  We both love cookies.

That's all I can think of now.  If you're planning a wedding, hope some of these ideas help!  But the lesson I learned was, just because a lot people spend a lot of money on something, doesn't mean you have to!

Twin Cities Nursing Strike

Today, an estimated 12,000 nurses in the Twin Cities walked out on the job, on a planned one-day strike.  

I am a nurse.  I am darn proud to be a nurse, too.  I understand why the nurses in the Twin Cities have chosen to do this strike.  Staffing is bad, pensions are threatened.  But this strike thing does not sit well with me.  For one reason.

They left their patients. 

For the patients' good, they say?  I can believe that rationale, somewhat, but I think it is flawed. Surely there must be another way.  It seems so contrary to a true nurse's spirit to leave a patient in need of care. Are things really that bad that you would compromise the care of your patients?  You?  A member of the most trusted profession in the States?

I recognize that my job at Mayo is pretty posh as far as nursing goes, and a big part of it is we have to compete with the Cities.  Their unions do a lot of work that makes non-union Mayo step up and match it so all the nurses from Rochester don't leave to work in the Cities.  I understand this. 

I also recognize that where I went to school, the nurses often had twice the number of patients nurses are expected to have at Mayo.  They also get a little over half the  pay that Mayo nurses get.  Nursing is not so kind in the South. 

Face it, MN nurses.  You make, on average, $10,000 more a year than nurses in other parts of the U.S.  You may not have the best staffing ratio in the U.S., but I have seen far worse in my short time in this career. 

I hope your strike is partially successful, just so you'll get back to your patients.  I sincerely hope staffing levels improve.  I also hope you don't get everything you want.  If anything, I hope you have rock-star teamwork to get through the shifts where all hell breaks loose.  I hope you stay proud to be a nurse and take the good with the bad when you can't remember why you chose this career in this first place.  I hope you compromise with the powers that be, and try to salvage some of the faith the U.S. public had in the nursing profession.

things like this happen to me.

This weekend, Bob and I stole away on an impromptu trip to the nearby Wisconsin Dells, Waterpark Capital of the World.  And it was a ton of fun.  Minus the getting stuck on a water slide moment.

This is the Scorpion's Tail ride at Noah's Ark Water Park.

At ten-stories high, it is a little intimidating.  The scariest part is the beginning, when the trap door you are standing on drops out from under you, and you begin barreling down the tube.  Supposedly you are supposed to go fast enough that you zip around the loop upside down.

But I'm brave, so I do it.  I stand on the trap door, let it drop from under me, and zip down the tube in a near vertical position.  I start the curve around the big loop and......

Suddenly, I'm not moving anymore.  I open my eyes which have previously been sealed tight, and find I am still in the tube.  I'm not in the happy little pool at the bottom of the slide.  I am still in the tube and I am not moving.

Slight panic sets in.  I look forward, and can see the peak of the slide just a few feet in front of my feet.  I look back, and see the slide curve downward to where I had just been.  I next envision Bob, who was behind me in line, barreling down at light speed and crashing into me in this tiny space, killiing me instantly.  Later I found out that he is still at the top of the slide, yelling, "She's stuck in there!  She's stuck in there! What have you done to my wife?!" I think this is when I started yelling for help and hitting the side of the tube, all the while thinking they can't hear me and they don't know I'm here.  I try to push myself forward, over the tipping point of the ride, so I would get out of there.  But my feet are above the level of my head, and with the stream of water gushing around me, I can't push myself that way.  So I figure, I have to go backwards, because I'm sure as heck not staying here.  All of this took about 15 seconds, which is, in other words, eternity.

So backwards I go, landing in the curve where the slide first makes an upstroke.  I start hitting the tube again, hoping to be heard, and all of a sudden, a magical trap door opens above my head, and I can see the blessed blue sky once again.  I stand up, step out on the staircase that is there, and am escorted by two members of the staff to safety.

And that was the time I got stuck in the water slide.

Glimpses of Family

Skyping after labor....

Discovering new life...

Laughter all around...

The little peanut...

So thirsty...

Wondering what all the fuss is about....