4.29.2007

I'm tired.

So so very tired. I only have a week and a half of school left, thank goodness! I cannot BELIEVE how quickly this semester has gone. I've got a test tomorrow and then my final the week after that! Oye.

I've got some cool news, too. I got an externship (think internship) at the hospital where I had my son! I'm SO beyond excited! They're letting me be in post-partum although my dream is Labor & Delivery. They don't usually put students in L&D though, so PP it is! Totally cool by me...I just can't wait to hold some babies and help moms with breastfeeding and taking care of their little ones. I think one of the coolest parts of being a nurse is the teaching aspect. We get to teach our patients so many things and I love being able to do that. Now, I do have this problem with talking super fast so I really hope I can control that once I get into the hospital. lol

So today my plan is to study for my test and probably clean up a bit around the house. Exciting, huh? ;) I'm thinking I may start my new hobby today as well and bake up a batch of fancy-dancy cupcakes. If I do I'll definitely get a picture going for you. ;)

Have a great Sunday!

4.28.2007

Carrie Underwood - I'll Stand By You

You can't watch this video and not want to bawl your eyes out. Amazing.

4.21.2007

Happy Earth Day!


Happy Earth Day, 2007! :) Well, technically it's another 30 minutes away, but I figured I'd start now since I'll have a LOT of studying to do tomorrow.
So, I promised an Earth Day quiz with an awesome prize for the person who gets the most correct answers, and I will not disappoint! Go ahead and read the questions, write down your answers somewhere, and shoot me an email with your answers and I'll give everyone until midnight tomorrow night to get them to me. I'll post the winner on Monday or Tuesday along with the correct answers. Make sure you check back a few times throughout the day for some more Earth Day fun! And remember...do what you can tomorrow to protect our home...walk instead of drive, recycle, plant a tree, pick some trash up off the ground (yes, even if it's not yours...ESPECIALLY if it's not yours), and slow down...stop and smell the flowers...they're there for YOUR enjoyment! :)
So without further ado, I bring to you...my Earth Day quiz! Good luck all!
1. If every American home replaced just one standard light bulb with a CFL (compact fluorescent light bulb), we would save enough energy to light more than ________ homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly _________ cars.

a. 2.5 million; 800,000
b. 1.5 million; 700,000
c. 10 million; 1 million
d. 1; 1

2. We celebrate Earth Day this year on what day?

a. May 16
b. June 14
c. April 22
d. December 27

3. VOCs, a variety of toxic chemicals found in paint, cleaning supplies, pesticides, permanent markers, etc. are shown to have both long and short-term health effects. Concentrations of VOCs are typically higher indoors. What does VOC stand for?

a. Very old chemicals
b. Volatile organic compounds
c. Vast organic chemicals
d. Vile old compounds

4. How much energy is saved by recycling one aluminum can?
a. Enough energy to run a treadmill for 24 hours
b. Enough energy to run a TV set for 4 hours
c. Enough energy to run a refrigerator for 6 days
d. Enough energy to run a CFL (compact fluorescent light bulb) for 10 hours

5. Which of the following is an item that CAN be composted?

a. Ground meat
b. Cooking oil
c. Human hair
d. Ashes from a charcoal grill

6. Which of the following has at least 80% more cancer-fighting properties than its conventional counterpart?

a. Organic olive oil
b. Organic balsamic vinegar
c. Organic pancetta
d. Organic ketchup

7. What does CSA, in relation to farming, stand for?

a. Community Supported Agriculture
b. Corn, Strawberries, Apples
c. Clean Standard Agriculture
d. Crops Sold in America

8. How many pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) does a 2007 Ford F150 Pickup emit per year?

a. 10,112 pounds
b. 9,812 pounds
c. 14,000 pounds
d. 13,812 pounds

9. In 2006, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded “green” status for the first time ever to a skyscraper (The Hearst Tower) in what city?

a. Boston
b. Chicago
c. New York City
d. Seattle

10. How many gallons of water can you save per day by fixing one leaky faucet?

a. 30
b. 5
c. 14
d. 20
Good luck everyone! I hope this will teach everyone a little something, too! :)

She's here!


Congratulations to my dear friends Jenn, Tim, & Sam Jordan! They welcomed their first little girl into their family today, Emily! :)

She was 6 pounds, 14 ounces with a little bit of red hair and she looks JUST like her brother! Congratulations, guys!! Can't wait to see you!

4.20.2007

Home Depot kicks butt!

How could you NOT love this?!?! On earth day (April 22) Home Depot will be giving away 1,000,000 CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs)! They're just giving them away! You HAVE to take advantage of this opportunity...by doing this they'll reduce 196 MILLION pounds of CO2 emissions into the air (the equivalent of removing 70,000 cars from the highway!) and save $12 million in annual energy costs! $12 MILLION! Can you believe that!? And...you get it all for free! Just by stopping in to a Home Depot store on the 22nd! :) EVERYONE can do that! So make sure you take advantage of the offer and hit the Home Depot store nearest you!

p.s. Come back to my blog in the next few days...I'm going to be having an Earth Day trivia game and the winner will get an awesome RAK! ;) (random act of kindness for those of you who don't know..lol)

4.14.2007

This makes me so happy!

A sweet, sweet text from my sister, Alicia:

"I really love you and i'm really glad/lucky you're my sissy :-)"
(March, 2007)

*sigh* I love my sisters!!!!


(Me on left, Alicia on right) ;)

4.12.2007

No friggin' way!

You are NEVER going to believe what this huge honkin' body did today. Never.

I JOGGED! :) That's right...I jogged. Well, it was only for 6 minutes, but dude, the last time I jogged I was still in Middle School. ;) I tore a page out of my Cooking Light magazine about jogging/walking and decided to try it out. For the first week you walk quickly for 4 minutes and then jog for 60 seconds. I can't believe I managed to do that! And I didn't quit...which is something I'd normally do! YAY ME!

Thanks to Chris and Jenn for letting is borrow the treadmill! :) I hope I can keep this up! So now that it's here someone has to keep me accountable. lol

4.08.2007

15 years later...

...ok, so I got the books. They're both flippin' awesome! The little one (Easy Being Green) is perfect for me! It's a checklist of small things you can change in your life to make the world a better place (don't you wish we could all be holding hands and singing Kumbaya right now?). It really is awesome. I love it. Immensely! Dave and I are waiting on our tax return to come in before we order our compost tumbler. TOTALLY excited about that. I hope we can figure it out. ;) Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it (can't remember if I did or not), Dave and I are gonna compost. Dave and his Dad put a patio down in our backyard and we're gonna plant some stuff and some herbs and hopefully we'll be able to use the most radical organic soil from our very own compost bin. Seriously, how COOL is that!? I'll get pictures put up as soon as I can.

Another way coolio thing that I've noticed is the amount of trash we've cut back on since we started recycling a few months ago. Seriously, it's more than HALF. We only send maybe 2 bags to the side of the road for trash pick up now! The rest goes to the recycling peeps. It's awesome! The cooler thing is that Bradley's picking up on it. He asks if he can recycle stuff and he even has a little basket that he's dubbed his "recycling bin" for his play kitchen. I'm so so happy about that because one of the main reasons I've started my "crusade" for the environment is for him and his family and their family and their family. I want the world to be a HEALTHY place for them to live and the sooner he catches on to ways that we as a family can make that happen, the better!

Ok, way more tomorrow...I wanna talk more about this, but I am SO tired.

Night!
 
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