Russ Is A Genius

Yup, that's my delicious blizzard treat sitting on the table. I decided to go to dinner at Dairy Queen tonight because it was so hot inside our house. Russ got a chicken basket and I got a blizzard (don't judge, you know you wish you could have ice cream for dinner). After sitting down and eating for a few minutes I noticed that on Russ' drink cup it said that blizzards are so thick that they defy gravity. That some employees will even serve them upside down sometimes. So I asked Russ if he ever did that when he worked there. He said no that it took too much time to do that. I said "oh yeah so much time to do this" and tipped my cup sideways and explained that the ice cream was too melted by now to hold it completely upside down. He took the cup from me and tipped it upside down and said "no, see" and just as he was about to tip it back up, splat. I started laughing uncontrollably. I made like Chandler and Rachel on the episode of Friends where they eat the cheesecake that fell on the floor and ate the rest of my blizzard straight from the table.

I'm A Homeowner...Kind Of

We started looking into buying a house back in February. The first house we looked at was in Lake Stevens. It was a beautiful townhouse that was a short sale. We offered a little more than they were asking but the sellers real estate agent showed them our offer second even though ours was first. They ended up going with the other offer and since we were "second" we didn't even have a chance to counter or anything.

Several houses later we looked at house on Lake Stevens that was newly built. I loved it but Russ had some reservations. There was no yard instead you had about ten feet between the back of the house and the house behind you. We countered back and forth a few times with the builder and when we finally came to an agreement it turned out that it was kind of like a short sale where it needed bank approval. They assured us that it would only take three days. Two weeks later we decided to start looking again.

We headed up to Marysville and looked at several more houses. We found one that hasn't been built yet but were able to go through the model home that is the exact same floor plan. I fell in love. The kitchen was amazing. The master bedroom had french doors that open into a huge room. The master bath had a soaking tub with separate shower! My entire life I've dreamed of having a tub like that. There wasn't a single detail about the house that I didn't like. The only downfall I could see was that it's twenty minutes north of where I am now in Everett. Russ' only concern was that there wasn't a yard. We decided that those reasons weren't enough to not get the house. So we made our third offer and countered back and forth a few times and now it is ours...

...kind of. The house still has to be built and we don't actually close until it's done so that means it will "officially" be ours around the beginning of October. Sorry to keep everyone in the dark about this but I didn't want to really discuss it until it was official.

Selfishness

This last week my doctor was away on vacation so the office was closed. I had a wonderful time of doing nothing. I took this opportunity to treat myself to some "me" time. I slept in every day, worked out on my Wii Fit, watched a lot of HGTV and sat around and did a lot of self reflection. I didn't want to go out and be with people or talk on the phone. I wanted to really be selfish and just think about myself and do what I wanted to do and it was amazing! I was having so much fun with it all when Russ wanted to go to a card show today I told him to go alone and I stayed home and watched movies all day by myself.



Now that the weekend is winding down I guess its time to go back to my normal day to day life. I'll have to return to work on Monday and go back to my routine of taking care of patients. I love my job but it can be very tiring being "fake LeAnn" as Russ calls it. When I'm at work (and a lot of times just dealing with people in general) I have to always be "on." Always having a smile on my face and speaking in a calm soothing yet happy voice. Listening to every one's stories like they are the most interesting things I've heard in all my life. Laughing at their stupid jokes and nodding along in sympathy to what ever it is that is going wrong in their lives.



I'm a peacemaker by nature and so it's in my personality to do whatever it takes to make everyone else happy. Don't get me wrong the same things that I complain about are the things that I also love. I do like to hear about my patient that was an army nurse in World War II. I love to hear about the guy that takes soccer balls down to South America. The kid that just graduated high school and is going to Italy to learn to cook. It's just that it can be tiring always trying to please everyone all the time. So it was a much needed staycation to just be alone and relax and be able to be my true self nonstop for a whole week.

Books

I mentioned a few posts ago how when I start reading a book I become consumed by it. I have to restrict myself to only one book a month because even after I finish the book I can't stop thinking about the characters and their lives. If I get too many story lines in my head at once I would never be able to get anything done. I also usually try to start and finish a book in the same day because I especially can't focus at work when all I can think about is how the book is going to end. Unfortunately, I started reading "Firefly Lane" yesterday and because its almost 500 pages only got three quarters of the way through it. I tried to go to bed at eleven last night but couldn't sleep (in case you haven't caught on yet, its because I was thinking about the book). I got out of bed at 12:15 and went up stairs so I could keep reading. Finally at 2:00 in the morning I forced myself to put the book down and try to sleep. Today I am super bratty and have no patience for my patients. I don't know if its the lack of sleep or my feelings from the book carrying over into my normal life.

The book starts out with two pages of the current day where the women are no longer friends and then jumps back to the 70's when they met and continues on through the 80's, 90's, and then 2000's. I am almost to the current day and I have a need to know what happens that sends a thirty year friendship down the drain.

I'm usually not a fiction reader, I prefer real life stories like memoirs, but for some reason I picked this book up and I'm glad I did. It is set in Seattle which I love because I feel like I'm special because I know all the places that are referenced. Even though its fiction its very true to life about the relationship between friends. How over time they grow apart and then grow back together again.

National Nurse's Day

Tomorrow being National Nurse's Day I would like to give a shout out to my sister Lauren. She is an Army Nurse and I like to think of her as a modern day Florence Nightingale. She is an amazing, compassionate, patient nurse. She served in Iraq and not only took care of wounded soldiers but was constantly coming up with ways to boost everyone's moral. She is now back in Georgia and teaching her nursing skills to others. She is just as good at teaching as she is at nursing. I love her very much and am so so so proud of her.

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

1.) How can it be that "LOST" is the best show of this generation and not one person I work with and not one patient today watched the episode last night? I came to work today bubbling with a need to discuss all that unfolded and no one to talk to. I tried to satisfy my craving by reading the blogs but its not the same as a face to face discussion where you can feed off the other person.

When I read a book I become consumed by the book and can't stop reading until I'm done with it. At the times that I can't be reading it (like when working). I think about the characters and wonder what will happen next and what the characters are doing right now. That's how I am with LOST and I can't say that I'm like that with any other show. I know some people have issues with the fantasy aspect of the story line but it doesn't bother me. For some reason in my mind its totally plausible that there would be a crazy weird smoke monster on a crazy weird island. I really believe that it could happen. Same thing with the whole time travel thing. I love that they constantly keep you guessing and reveal just enough to satisfy you but still keep you on your toes. I will truly be sad when it comes to an end next season.

2.) I was in the drive through at Taco Bell today and the mini-van in front of me had to open the driver side door to place her order. This was mildly amusing to me. Then when she pulled up to the window, the passenger opened up the left side sliding door and got out to get the food. This was very amusing to me.

3.) I think ring back songs or whatever they are called (when you call someone instead of hearing a ringing noise you hear a song) is the best idea ever. When I call patients I get to know there personality better just by listening to what song they chose.

Pet Peeve of the Day

If you are at a doctors office or really just anywhere where there is a counter between you and the person you are doing business with, please, please, please do not ever lean over the counter and take a pen out of their pen holder. This is my personal space and my personal pens. If you need one ask me and I would be happy to offer you one of the office pens. Or better yet how about you use the one sitting right next to you on the counter? I am very picky when it comes to what pens I use and I don't like other people using them. I even hide them from my coworkers. It's kind of like the scene in "Serendipity" where John Cusak's character is at Macy's or something and tries to walk behind the counter. I totally felt for the the store clerk in that scene.