...And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Oh, what a week! In the last 7 days, I have been to work once. Why, you ask? Well it all started Sunday, the day we went to the Chief's game. (Sprint provided us with some wonderful box seats, inside a heated room 'n all!) I had had the sniffles for a few days, but nothing really alarming. I went to bed that night with a box of Kleenex by the bed, thinking nothing of it. Well then somehow, 4am rolls and around the next morning, and I wake up feeling like I am on my deathbed. For real. I got up and walked around, moaning and groaning, trying to figure out if this "feeling" is the real thing. Well, it was. I called in sick to work thinking, "ok, I'll stay home today to kick this nasty bug, then I'll be all ready for work tomorrow." Well it turns out that my next night of sleep was even worse. I tossed, coughed, turned, sat up to cough some more, turned, took a drink of water, tossed again to make my head feel more comfortable...and so on, and so forth, all night long. So turns out work didn't work out again. Well then I had the last 3 days off anyway, so I've been able to recover all week long. I am, though, working the next 3 days, starting tomorrow, so I have a feeling that 5am tomorrow is going to be a rather rude awakening. But I'm ready. Ready to get it over with. Ready to go home for Christmas. Ready to get through this winter sick season. (Ready to be done with my job, really. Wait, did I say that out loud??!!)

Anyway, on a more positive note, I am feeling wonders better. This was my first URI (upper respiratory infection) in probably over a year. That is amazing, if you know how often I was sick before! And I recovered from this one in record time, too. Usually these bouts would go on for weeks-forget a couple days! Although I still suffer from headaches, anxiety, asthma and allergies, I think the way my body has handled these illness' has changed drastically. Let's hope that this is a sign that all my hard earned cash that I'm shoveling into making myself well again is helping. I think now I'm onto changing my lifestyle to help my body-namely, my career. I love nursing, don't get me wrong, but I think my job is really taking a toll on my body. So I am on a mission to fix it. In whatever way that may be. Wish me luck.

So I bought a Christmas tree this year. It's a 6 1/2 footer from Wal-Mart; pre-lit too! It's a little bare in some spots, but I suppose that's what you get for buying a 35 dollar tree from Wally World. But it will do.

I think I've got most of the Christmas shopping done, just a few odds and ends yet to get. I think I'll make a stop at Kohl's today-they're having a 2 [or 3] day sale. I'm tellin ya, shopping for Christmas in a big city is so much easier than when you live in a small town. This way you don't have to drive miles and miles to get to your nearest Christmas-present-outlet. Although, the crowds are ridiculous. That's what's nice about having days off during the week, though.
Alright, must go. I've a got a few things I need to do today, including trying to finish the book Marley and Me. Movie comes out Christmas Day! Who's excited for that?!! Merry Christmas everyone!

Post-Thanksgiving Woes

Well the turkey holiday is over and everyone is back to work, except for me of course. I've got one more day of rest before I'm back to the grind. I had an exceptionally wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I got canceled on Thanksgiving day (as I had ever-so-anxiously hoped for) and got to head home that morning and join in with the fam for the traditional lunch time feast. Everyone was so shocked to see me, and I was so glad to be home. I joined Alex after lunch to visit with his family for awhile and then we both made our way back over to the Holthus' for a fun evening of Catch Phrase and Engergizer bunny-like stories from my dear cousin Henry. We really did have a good time.

The rest of the weekend ended up being pretty laid back. Friday night was spent watching movies at the Koehn house. Then after a yummy breakfast at Neighbor's Cafe with gramps, Alex took me out shooting (a gun, that is) for my first time. We went out to the ol' pasture out by the farm (of course) and shot at some pop cans and hedgeapples. I must say I did pretty good for my first time, although as expected I came out with a nice big bruise on my arm the next day, as well as one giant body ache. I've been told that shooting the 12-guage may have had a little less kick-back then the 20-guage. Oh well, we had fun and it was a decent day to be out on the range.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with my parents and then out with some friends. Alex loves to hang out with the boys and play pool when we're home. I think we're both pretty content with our back road, country-singin, football-watchin, beer-drinkin friends. We might live in the big city, but we are country people at heart :)

Anyway, we had one more Thanksgiving meal yesterday with Alex's parents and grandparents. I think secretly Jana felt bad that I couldn't make it to their family Thanksgiving, so she whipped up one just for me. Or maybe it was that she couldn't get enough of all the wonderful food, so we had to eat it again. Either way, it was delicious. It did make for the drive home to Kansas City a little tiring, but the food was greatly appreciated.

Alex is going back to McPherson yet again next weekend to help at his grandma's house. I guess they have to crawl underneath the house and do some repairs. Sounds like a good time to me, but I'll be working on Saturday.

As we all know, Christmas is only a few mere weekends away. I still have Christmas shopping to do and decorations to put up. Well, actually I need to buy a tree, too. I was gonna buy one last year but just never did. But this year it's for sure. If I could only find a way to keep the dad gom dogs from chewing up the ornaments....

Alright well that is all for now. I hope all the families made it safely back to their respected parts of the country. We returned back to Kansas City only to find a fairly thick blanket of snow! Anyway, Happy Holidays and thanks for stoppin by!