Two Great Books

I've been meaning to post about this book I finished a few weeks ago. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. It's called the Time Travellers Wife and it's by Audrey Niffenegger (thanks Jeff and Fiona!). It's about a man who time travels back and forth in time. Here's what the back says "When Henry meets Clare he is twenty-eight and she is twenty. Henry has never met Clare before; Clare has known Henry since she was six." Henry gets periodically displaced in time to emotionally significant events in his life. He repeatedly travels back in time to Clare, his wife, when she is a child. He travels back in time to see his parents before he was born. Sometimes he travels back to happy times or finds himself in the middle of a fight or he travels forward in time to see events that havn't happened yet. It's a great book but it can get kind of confusing if you don't read it frequently because you have to keep track of where Henry is in time. I suggest picking it up when you have an hour to dedicate to it, but then after an hour you won't be able to put it down ;o) Read it and let me know what you think! I'm reading another 'page turner' right now and I'm sure that you'll hear all about it when I'm done.

Great Salmon Recipe

Travis and I made some pretty yummy salmon for dinner last night and I know there are some salmon lovers in my family so I thought I'd better post the recipe. It's from my Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats.

Sweet Lemon Salmon with Mini Carrots and Dill

3 tbsp light brown sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 6oz salmon fillets
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 18oz bag of baby carrots
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup fresh dill

Preheat oven to 400F

For the carrots with dill, fill a medium skillet with 1 1/2 inches of water and bring to a simmer.
For the sweet lemon salmon, in a small sauce pot, combine the brown sugar, 2 tbsp water, and lemon juice. Place over medium heat and bring up to a simmer while stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once at a simmer, cook for 1 minute, then reserve in a warm place.
To cook the salmon, preheat an ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat with the veg oil. Season the salmon with salt, pepper, and then lemon zest. Add to the hot skillet, and cook for 3-4 min on the first side. Flip the salmon over, brush with the brown sugar-lemon mixture, transfer to the oven, and cook for 4-5 more minutes or until cooked through.
While the salmon is cooking, add the baby carrots to the boiling water, season with salt and simmer for 3-4 mins, or until temder. Drain the carrots, then return them to the skillet and place back over the heat. Add the butter, dill, salt, and pepper and stir the carrots until the butter has melted. Transfer the carrots to a serving platter and serve alongside the sweet lemon salmon.

Soooo good!

Courses, courses and more courses

I feel like I'm in school again! Right now I'm working on three courses for work. I'm updating my Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) next Friday. You might remember my posts in early September describing my own personal heart attacks trying to prepare for that course. Normally, I wouldn't have to re-certify until Sept 2008 but the Heart and Stroke Foundation has decided to come up with new guidelines for the course so I get to re-certify now rather than later. I know the H&S Foundation does great work but this wasn't one of their brighter ideas in my mind. I spent today at a workshop for the obstetric course I'm taking called Strategies for Teaching Obstetrics to Rural and Urban Caregivers (STORC). It is soooooo basic, nursing school knowledge of labor and delivery I was bored to tears today. I'm probably one of the most experienced nurses taking the course, there's 6 of us and 4 of them are new grads, and the questions they were asking.....I just had to shake my head. Oh well, it's a good review, I'm getting paid to take it and I get 4 'buddy' shifts on the labor and delivery unit at the Foothills to get some good experience. The third course that I just signed up for is the Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course (ENPC) and that doesn't happen until March but I picked up the 300 page text book today that I have to have read prior to the course starting. Whew! Lots of reading ahead of me but it's a great opportunity and all the courses are both paid for and I'm being paid to take them. Oh, and I learned today that I've been selected to take the advanced obstetric course (when I'm finished the basic one) called MORE OB (not sure what it stands for) and that course requires a 3 year committment although because we're a small facility we'll likely be done in 18 months. I'm going to be a super nurse by the time I'm finished!

Working way too much

Ahhhh...finally a day off! I've been working far too much lately. I worked all weekend last weekend and I'm working all week and all weekend this week so I'm feeling like I've hardly seen Travis lately. I get home from work and I'm so tired and in so much pain that all I can manage to do is crawl into bed. I had the best surprise Saturday morning before going to work. While I was in the shower Travis got up and made waffles with whipped cream and sprinkles, just the way I like 'em! He really is the most amazing boyfriend ever. He had a fun filled weekend of teaching the new recruits at the firehall on Saturday and skiing at Sunshine all day Sunday and what did I do?.....work, work, work. Blah and blah.
We're still working on moving my stuff from my old place to here. It's hard to find time lately with me working 12hr shifts and weekends when Travis gets weekends off and after a full day at work we just don't feel up to doing it in the evenings. I think today I'm going to work on unpacking some of my boxes, I'm going for a much needed massage at 3pm and then hopefully meeting up with Sue this evening when she gets off work.

quick post!

Quick update......no delivery for me on Thursday! She labored all day and didn't end up having the baby till Friday morning. Poor girl but she has a BEAUTIFUL, and I should know cause I've seen lots of newborns, BEAUTIFUL baby girl.
I'm off to work this morning in the ER so I'd better get moving. Sick people are waiting!

great day!

I had a great day at work today. I was orientating a new staff member, actually a brand new nurse let alone staff member. The surefire way to find out what you know and what you don't know is to try and teach someone else. Luckily, for the most part, I realized that I actually knew a lot more than I thought I did! Yea! I made it through the day with only one severe headache, my arm only went numb and tingly three times and now instead of pain I have a dull ache through my neck and shoulders. So today was all around a good day! (my lawyer says I have to complain more and not keep my troubles to myself as much so I'm giving it a try, sorry) So today I had a first time mom and new baby and it was awesome because I got to spend a lot of time teaching them. She didn't believe me when I said I didn't have kids of my own because apparently I know tons about babies. I should hope so after spending 4 years working with them! It's fun when you have receptive parents and you leave at the end of day feeling like you really helped someone. Tomorrow I have a mom coming in for an induction of labor. She's almost a week overdue and in agony waiting for her baby. I got to meet her yesterday and they're a great couple and the doctor is fantastic so it should be a good "first delivery at the Canmore hospital" experience for me. I'm a little nervous but excited too because it's been so long since I've been involved in a delivery. I just hope that it all goes smoothly for mom, baby and especially me!

Weekends go by too fast

Monday already?! The weekend flew past. Saturday we went to Calgary and had a total waste of a day. The roads were awful and the whole time we were there we were worrying about having to drive home so it really ruined the whole day. We went to the Home Expo, mostly out of curiosity but also to see if we could get any ideas for changes to make around the house. We realized that the show was geared more towards people who are building mansions and have $10,000 to spend on a shower with a TV, telephone and LED light show. It wasn't really geared towards people like us who want to make changes but can't really afford to. We wanted to know 'how can we make noticable changes with our bank account noticing?' and there was nothing like that. We walked around there saying 'when we're rich, we'll get that.' Now we just have to get rich.
Sunday we got up and went for our usual breakfast at Harvest where we usually meet up with firehall people but we were the only ones there yesterday. We moved a ton of stuff out of my old place and into the garage here so my job today is to unpack what I can. I hate moving. I tried to tell Travis that when we buy a house we're hiring people to move us but he seems to think that we'll just get a bunch of guys together and they'll move us in an afternoon in exchange for pizza and beer. Just as long as all I have to do is call for pizza.
I'm supposed to be sitting here thinking of what to tell my doctor this morning. I'm going in to give her an update on my lack of progress with my neck. It's too depressing to think of all the things that I can't do anymore or might not be able to do in the future. Mom and I went through it a few months ago and filled 4 pages front and back. I got the Botox injections into my head and neck muscles which was supposed to help the spasms and headaches by paralyzing the muscles. It's helped somewhat. I noticed it more right after I had it done in December. I still get pretty severe headaches but they don't last as long and they aren't as frequent and I'm still waking up in the night with cramps in my neck and shoulders. I definately notice it more at work. When I'm at work I'm in constant discomfort, my muscles are tight and that's when the headaches and tingling in my hands happen the most. It sucks and I'm getting really frustrated and really tired of having to deal with this. Physio isn't helping, mainly because I can't afford to go as much as they want me to and massage is a nice temporary fix but it doesn't offer any long term relief. With the combination of massage and physio that I'm supposed to be getting it's going to cost me $854.40/month. My benefits cover a small portion of that but I'm pretty close to maxing out my benefit coverage already. I just want it all to go away.

Quiet Sunday

It's a quiet Sunday morning for me. I needed to sleep late this morning since I'm working nights tonight so Travis being the wonderful, most amazing boyfriend in the world, went out for breakfast with the guys from the firehall and let me sleep. He's still out, and I'm sitting in the kitchen waiting for my Cheerios to get soggy, watching the cat entertain himself with the cords from the blinds. It's a good thing we didn't buy this cat very many toys since his favorite ones are empty boxes, piles of paper and now it seems to be the hanging blinds. We do have one toy on an elastic cord that we tied to the back of a chair and it takes him all of 30 seconds to get it all tangled up and go back to playing in his empty box. It's kind of ironic that he even likes the box since someone abandoned him in a box on the side of the highway. Short term memory I guess. We took him to the vet yesterday for his second set of shots and $120 later we found out he was healthy, no kidding. We spent the day yesterday cooking a turkey for my sisters 'faux Christmas dinner" She had friends over for turkey dinner and 'faux Christmas' We kept most of the leftovers so now we've got turkey for a week, again! I think I might make turkey soup. I'm working the next 3 nights and then I have a week off! I'm really starting to look forward to the day when I either don't have to or can't work anymore. I love my job but I'm getting sick of working nights and 12hr shifts. I'd like to work 4hr shifts, no nights, and make my own schedule. Maybe someday.

Christmas Pictures

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a safe and happy New Years Eve. I spent it at work and at midnight I was literally cleaning old puke basins. They had been sitting there leftover from the day shift so not only were they old puke basins, they were old and crusty puke basins. Yuck! I was working in the ER and I was expecting it to be a crazy, busy night but it was slower than than it has been in a really long time. I've been working there the last 4 night shifts I've done and it's been hopping busy all night long, with two nurses running our butts off all night. Last night it was a slow but steady trickle of patients with nothing more exciting than allergies. Not at all what I had expected.
This morning I got home and Travis and I slept in till noon then made a big breakfast and went snowshoeing. It was my first time on my new snowshoes and they're great! We were out for about an hour and then on our way back home, Travis's fire pager went off and I got dropped off at the fire hall. So now I'm sitting at the internet cafe down the street waiting for him to finish saving lives so we can go grocery shopping before the store closes. I wandered around downtown for a bit, went to the bank, the post office and to Beamers for a matcha latte so I'm hoping he's done soon cause I'm running out of things to do.
Welcome to 2007!

New snow!

We've had at least 8 inches of new snow in the last few days! I splurged on new snowshoes on Boxing Day and can't wait to try them but now it's way too cold outside. I'm not into outdoor sports when it's -15C.
Travis is out on a fire call, saving lives and breaking hearts as usual. You can now read all about his adventures on his blog http://fireboytrav.blogger.com. Now that he's got a blog and doing posts all the time I have to keep up with him. So anyways, I'm having a lazy morning home alone. I slept in till noon which I obviously needed after only sleeping 4hrs after getting off nights yesterday. I cleaned the house a bit cause Travis is having the boys over for poker tonight.
Back in a minute...Travis is on his way home and starving from being out in the cold all morning...I'd better get some lunch ready for him....be right back.......
We had a great Christmas at my mom's. It was nice to get away for a few days and see my mom and Grandma. We took mom's snowmobile out on a field and I gave cross country skiing a try. Apparently I'm not going to be in the Olympics anytime soon. Travis got out on his snowshoes and attempted to take the crazy carpet for a ride but the snow was too deep. Christmas Day was quiet, as it usually is for us. Sue woke us up at 6:45am to open presents. At least it wasn't 4:30am like it was when we were kids. We made a big breakfast, snacked all day while working on the puzzle and playing games (I kicked butt at Scrabble) and then made a huge dinner feast and crashed on the couch for the rest of the evening. It was a perfect, typical Christmas Day. We had to come home on Boxing Day cause both Sue and I had to work. Travis drove and Sue and I both slept the whole way home.
Yesterday we went to Costco to load up on healthy food since we've been eating nothing but junk the last few weeks. We got lots of good stuff. I love Costco. Today is likely going to be a lazy day. We have to take out the recycling and a coffee at Starbucks is high on my list. We'll probably take down the Christmas tree tomorrow :0( so sad, I hate taking it down. I'm working nights over the weekend so Travis is on his own for New Years Eve :0(

Happy Christmas!

We're heading to Sicamous in the morning!!! I'm spending today packing and trying to get everything ready as much as I can. I'm working nights tonight so Travis is going to pick me up from work and we're leaving town. I'm so excited. Hobo is coming with us so I hope that he's going to be ok in the truck and at my mom's with Cocoa and Paddy. He might be a little traumatized at first but Cocoa and Paddy are used to having other cats around. I have to finish wrapping all my Christmas gifts and do a ton of laundry today so I'd better get cracking! Happy Christmas everyone!

Christmas Party

Pictures from the Town of Canmore christmas party last Saturday night.

My birthday lillies

Travis got me the most beautiful lillies for my birthday.

Introducing.....

The newest member of our little family.....Hobo! We got him on Saturday from the vet clinic. He's 5 months old and the cutest kitty ever! He was brought into the vet clinic after someone found him in a box on the side of the street with another cat so we rescued him and brought him home. He's totally black which for us is good luck considering we met on Friday the 13th it only makes sense to have a black cat. We named him Hobo because he was found in a cardboard box on the side of the street so he was kind of a hobo. He purrs constantly and is super cuddly, it's awesome. So far all he does is sit and watch the birds. He hasn't made any attempt to kill them yet.

Our Tree!

Christmas countdown

Only 10 more days till Christmas Eve! I am now off work for a week! Although I might take the opportunity to pick up a shift or two in Calgary since I havn't worked there in 6 weeks. But then again I might just take the week off! I go back to work for one shift and then I'm off again for 4 days over Christmas. We leave for Sicamous on Friday morning when I get off work and I'm soooo excited. I havn't had Christmas off work in the entire 4 years I've been nursing. Oh and by the way, I passed my 4 year nursing anniversary on the 12th! Time flies cause it sure doesn't feel like I've been working 4 years. Anyways, I've finished my Christmas shopping already, I've never finished this early and the problem with finishing early is that I now have more time to find all sorts of things that I wish I had bought instead so now I buy them too! Being organized isn't really helping my bank account so I think next year I'll go back to the 'last minute scramble' My problem now is that I bought gifts weeks ago that needed to be sent away and of course they're still sitting at home waiting to be mailed and now it's getting crunch time to get them in the mail so they'll be there in time for Christmas, even though I bought them and could have mailed them weeks ago!! I guess I'm not all that organized afterall. This weekend is going to be another busy one for us. We have the big Town of Canmore Christmas Party on Saturday night. I even got to buy a new dress for it!! Although every woman needs to have a little black dress and I didn't have one so it's an investment rather than an extravagant purchase on myself when I'm supposed to be buying for other people! Oh well, it promises to be a fun party and at least I have a pretty dress to wear. Happy weekend everyone!

Christmas Tree Adventures

We got a Christmas tree last weekend! It's the first ever real Christmas tree for Travis and so far it's been an adventure. We got it from Sobeys and the guy selling them subjected us to 'high pressure Christmas tree sales." He picked out the best one for us and it's a good thing he did cause they were all tied up so we had no idea what we were looking for. Apparently when they're all tied you have to pick a tree according to it's height and weight, heavy trees are fuller than light trees. So we got home to realize that my tree stand wasn't in the box with the decorations so instead of going back to my storage space to search for the stand we went to Home Hardware and bought a new one. The guy who sold us the tree cut off the end for us so all we had to do now was get it into the stand and decorated....easier said than done. Well actually we did get it into the stand and cut off the ties and decorated without incident...the trouble came afterwards. We had just finished decorating it and getting dressed up to go out for dinner and were sitting on the couch admiring how perfect it was, well Travis had his computer in his lap and I was sitting on the couch beside him admiring the tree and it's obvious lean.....when 30 seconds later it started to fall towards us! Travis jumped up, threw the computer in my lap and in his dress shirt and tie, caught the tree before it fell. Nevertheless water was spilled all over the floor and all our perfectly placed decorations were now not so perfect. So I'm holding the tree and Travis is up on a stool, 10 minutes before we were supposed to be at dinner, in his shirt and tie hammering a nail into the windowsill and tying the tree to the nail with fishing line. Thank goodness it was still standing when we got home. I've been getting the speech about keeping it well watered since before we got it. I guess that's the 'advantage' of dating a firefighter (just kidding honey!). I've been forgetting to check the tree anyways, good thing I'm dating a firefighter. It's drinking an unbelievable amount of water but it seems to have slowed down over the last two days. I'll post pictures when I remember to get my camera out of the car. Remember how Travis was aka Scrooge last week? Well on Sunday we went to the Christmas store in Banff and he was the one buying ornaments for the tree. Aha! So much for Scrooge!!

Yummy recipe

My mom got me a gift card at Chapter for my birthday and I put it to good use and bought a new cookbook. It's by Rachael Ray and it's called 365:No Repeats. I think she has a show on the Food Network too but you should really check out this cookbook it's great. We tried our first recipe last night and it was soooo good I have to pass it on.

Smokey Chipotle Mac-N-Cheddar

1 lb elbow macaroni or cavatappi
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 small onion (of course I omitted that, ew onions!)
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
3 cups whole milk
1 cup chicken stock
3 cups smoked cheddar cheese
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped or 1 tbsp ground chipotle powder (that's what I used)
3/4 to 1 lb chorizo, diced
1 15oz can fire roasted tomatoes

Cook noodles. While the noodles cook, heat in a medium sauce pot over medium low heat. Add the EVOO and heat with the butter until it melts. Add the onions and chipotle and cook for 3 to 5 minutes to sweat them out and turn the juices sweet. Raise the heat a bit, then whisk in the flour, cayenne, and paprika. Whisk together until the roux bubbles up, then cook for one minute more. Whisk in the milk and stock and raise the heat a bit higher to bring the sauce to a quick boil. Once it bubbles, drop the heat back to a simmer and cook until the sauce thickens, 3 to 5 minutes. While the sauce cooks in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat brown the chorizo. Then add the tomatoes and cook briefly, just to heat them through. Add the cheese to the thickened sauce and stir to melt it. Stir in the mustard and season with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the noodles, add the chorizo and tomatoes and mix!
Serves 4 (with leftovers!)

Enjoy! and let me know if you try it!

Happy birthday to ME!

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes. I survived the day although it wasn't pretty. Travis and I stayed home and ordered birthday pizza and I got to spend the day in my pj's!
I've been working far too much lately but now I have the next 4 days off!! It's going to be a busy 4 days though. We have two parties to go to this weekend. Birthday party on Friday and then the nurses Christmas party on Saturday night. We're getting a tree this weekend too!!!!! I convinced Scrooge (aka Travis) to get a real tree. He wanted to take out his fake tree but I said no way, fake trees are totally unacceptable. I love Christmas and everything about it but I have some work to do in convincing Travis that Christmas is the best time of year. Wish me luck!