Wheew What a Ride

After 3 years I have finally finished!

HOORAY!!!

Although I walked across the stage to get my diploma last week, I still had this stressful cloud hanging over my head.

Even though I had completed my school requirements to graduate I still was not a Respiratory Therapist. I still had the nerve racking Boards looming ahead.

I am proud to announce that I passed my Boards yesterday. I am now a Respiratory Therapist.

Now I just have to get a job. Until then I'm gonna do some relaxing and start to study for my two-part registry.

And I want to send many thanks to my wonderful husband who has been my biggest supporter and motivator through this long journey. Also many thanks to all of my friends and co-workers for your support and continuous words of encouragement. I couldn't have made it through without all of you.

Throwback Friday

Why yes I have been MIA recently. I have to admit I've been a little stressed and busy. So until school is done and I've passed my boards, Throwback Friday is on a little vacation. I know, I know...I can hear your sobs from here. I promise to start it back up as soon as I can.

But just for a little update, I did have a wonderful interview at Duke. Now I'm not getting my hopes up too much. Its Duke, for heaven's sake. They only hire the best (well atleast thats what I'm telling myself) and the market is really competitive right now and even the health care industry is cutting jobs and budgets.

I won't hear anything for another 2 to 3 weeks but that's okay. What will be will be. Right now I have to concentrate on finishing school (2 more weeks, yo) and taking my exam to get licensed.

So until then, if I don't post or comment, it doesn't mean I don't love yaw'll; cuz you know I do. So send up some prayers and keep everything crossed for me. Peace!

Is This Legal?

No, you are not seeing double, triple or even quadruple. Yes, this is all liquor. And we have two more bins full of the stuff. So much in fact, I'm renaming "Casa des Costello" to "Costello Speakeasy."

I'm sure you're asking where in the hell did we get all this booze. No, we didn't rob the local ABC store. My mother-in-law has finally made the move from Iowa to North Carolina.

She owned a bar.

She closed the bar.

Now we own bar...well not really but we could. We have more liquor than ECU's campus.

Whose ready to party?

Seriously...

We need help with consuming all this goodness.

And on top of all this we just bottled 2 cases of home brew & have another 5 gallons fermenting that will be kegged in another week.

Issues?

Perhaps.

Throwback Friday

On Monday, my little girl will be 8. I remember the day I brought her home. Suzie was soooo tiny and I was completely in love. The week before, I had gone and bought her some toys, a bed and all the puppy essentials. I went to Target and bought a pink baby blanket, which she still has, and a play pen. No child of mine was to sleep in a crate; I wanted nothing but the best for my new little pup.


Today Suzie looks nothing like she did when she was a pup. She has grown into a beautiful, lovely lady..well aside from licking her lady bits. She still has my heart.

A lot of my friends have "real" children these days and I can't imagine having one myself. Its strange to some of you, I know, that I don't have this overwhelming desire to be a mother to something other than a furbaby. Don't get me wrong, I like kids and I love holding and spending time with my friends' kids. I guess just for me, I was born without that biological clock. Or its just broke. But whatever the reason, I can sorta understand the love that parents have for their children. Because I've been spending so much time with babies, both personally and professionally, I've realized that I talk to Suzie and treat her just like I do the human babies. So in a weird way, I get it.

I love this dog more than anything. I mean its right up there for the unconditional love I have for my husband. I'd be devastated and lost without "my little Suzie girl." She makes me smile and laugh and angry sometimes...like right now while she is trying to rip paperwork to shreds. Ahh, who needs that silly paperwork right? Go ahead, play and have fun! Don't worry; mama will clean it up.

Happy Birthday, Suzie!

I'm mama's lil pirate...ARRGGHHH

Awwww Snap...Spring is Here

To kick off the first weekend of spring we did give the boat some much needed TLC, with a little help from our friends, of course. I love spring and it just makes me all giddy. And I go around singing this little rhyme courtesy of our dear ole friend Mr. Willy Wonka:

IN SPRINGTIME

THE ONLY PRETTY RING TIME

BIRDS SING

EH, DING A-DING A-DING

SWEET LOVERS LOVE

THE SPRING


I love how my husband is "photo-bombing" our pic with the kids

The boat looks brand new. I wish I could take some sort of credit for it. I didn't do a damn thing but drink beer and gossip. But I had a dandy good time doing it. By the end of the day I was so pumped, I just couldn't stand it-I had to put on my life jacket and pretend I was floating around, getting my Vitamin D on.
So until next time, stock up on the suntan lotion and get your gear ready...ITS BOATING TIME FOOLS!

Final Answer...

I am a bit torn about the cleansing diet I did last week. I lost 2 lbs so that's good, but I have been trending around the 1-2 lbs per week doing things my way. So I am not sure if it really worked or not. I think it may be a good idea for someone who is just starting; I mean it was called the "Pre-Diet Cleanse" afterall.

The powder shakes kept me full for about 5 hours. The downside is they were pretty disgusting. By Friday, I couldn't get them down. They honestly, made me gag. Slim Fast tastes much better but they don't have as much protein & fiber.

The Diet Pak did give me energy and made me pee more. They also made me thirsty so my water consumption went up; the downfall was so did my beer consumption on Saturday.

The cleanse that I drank after dinner every night actually tasted really good. I'm not sure it ever cleansed me though. I didn't see any change in my #2s.

Maybe if I had 100% stayed on the cleanse and didn't cheat on day 6 & 7, I may have lost more weight. However, I could not bear to drink one more of those damn meal replacement shakes. No wonder people lose weight. They taste so damn shitty that you don't even want to eat!

If anyone saw my last post on the weight update, I decided to send back the tee shirt and get a smaller size. I was informed by the husband (after a few beers ofcourse) that the shirt made me look trashier than a lot lizard carrying around a milk jug full of Summer's Eve. He doesn't know much about fashion but I certainly don't want to go around looking like a cheap whore either. I'm hoping the smaller size will give me the look I'm going for, but with a more classy flair. We shall see...

Throwback Friday

In honor of this weight loss journey, I would like to use this opportunity to remind myself of what I use to look like and to use this as a goal.

This was taken in Maneo, NC in 2000-about 4 months prior to my 20th birthday. Oh I wish, I still had that stomach. I'm working on it....stay tuned!