Amazing...

I wish I could take credit for this picture, but I cant! This was taken by my roommate Kim. She is a great photographer and captured this amazing sunset from Tempe Town Lakes. I attempted to take some sunset pictures when I was out exercising one night. Call me crazy, but by the time I got tripped by the dog, dropped my camera in the sand, and almost dropped it in the lake, I was not longer excited to capture the beautiful sunset! I love this picture! Thanks Kim!

My favorite place...

Moving down here I promised myself that I was going to make many personal changes one being exercising regularly again, and getting in great shape! I always made excuses about the weather.. and not enough time when I was back home, but that's all they were.. excuses! No more! Shortly after moving here we found the best spot! It's call Tempe Town Lakes. It is a few minutes from our house and is a huge man made lake. Tempe town Lakes is always a happening place to be. There are concerts, art festivals, people rowing, sailing, running, volleyball tournaments and most recently the location of the Ironman. It's beautiful at sunset to be at one end of the lake and see the sun setting and the silouttes of the sailboats. It is a great place to go with my roommmate and her dog Jackie who LOVES it there, but it is also a great relaxing place to go by myself whether it is to run or simply sit by the water and read. I would have to say this is one thing I will miss most about this place. Me and my roommate have both taken pictures of the sunset at the lakes but I cant get the pictures posted... I will keep trying!!!

Tempe Town Lakes

Here is another picture of Tempe Town Lakes. The pictures don't do it justice, so it may be hard for you to see why I LOVE it there!

Just say no..

We all have experienced it. You are up watching TV or on the computer and you are nearly giving yourself whip lash from falling asleep and then snapping your head up abruptly as you nod off. You decided to go to bed only to realize as soon as you hit the pillow.. wham! Your eyes fly open. You are thinking about work, the groceries you need to buy, what color of scrubs to wear tomorrow,and the biggest stresser of all, you worry about the fact that you are laying in bed worrying, because you know dang well it is keeping you awake. You get up and take something to sleep, knowing very well you could be dragging all day tomorrow, but you don't care you are desperate! Desperate time, desperate measures! You decide a benadryl might do the trick instead of a heavy sleeping pill. You are weary and only take a half.. lucky you, you are the small percentage that get the paradoxical affect of a drug. That is just a fancy word for IT DOES OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU WANT!!! You are more wide awake than before, and instead of relaxing and actually falling asleep you lay and stare at the clock and the countdown begins.....it starts out as only 7 hours until I have to wake up... then its 5... then its 4... you get the point. Then you end up like me.. its 3am, and my shift starts at six. The math is easy.. I don't really have time to sleep, because we all know that the nights you can't sleep it is inevidable that we fall into a deep sleep about an hour just before we have to get up! Do to the nature of my job, I find that it is really in my patients best interest if I do not go to work and attempt to provide "safe patient care." As a nurse we are taught to be a patient advocate.. in this case I am advocating that their sleepy nurse needs to stay home.. take a nap and possibly lay by the pool.. its all in the best interest of my patient you see....

Isn't he cute!

I just have to say that my Dad is the most amazing man on this earth! After everything he has been through he never complains and always has a positive outlook on life. I went to Sierra Vista this weekend where he was visiting my Grandparents and got to spend a few days with him. I cherish every minute I have with him and count my blessings that he is still here with me. I love you Dad!

My life

Do we have to be good at things we consider a hobby?

You know when you have a vision of how something should turn out and it turns out to be completely different than what you invisioned..usually for worse vs better, well I experienced that after my first experience painting pottery at "As you Wish," in Tempe Az. My Roommate Kim suggested we go to a place where you pick out your pottery and get to paint it. Well we went, we picked out vases to paint. I picked my colors, had my vision of my design and I was on my way. I took a lot of time on my project for a number of reasons:
1. I am a perfectionist
2. I am not an artist
3. It was going to be used for a birthday present

As I mentioned before, I am not an artist. My painting and drawing abilities have never been shall we just say.. decent. Therefore, I finished my vase and was suprinsingly ok with it. I would have to wait three days while they fired it before I could go pick it up.

Three days later: I look up on the shelf trying to find my vase that I painted. I see one that is painted in the familiar colors of my vase but the things painted on there look like star fish.. just then the lady reaches for that vase and hands it to me. This is definately not what I pictured.. my flowers look like starfish. Well guess we will be picking something else out to paint for the birthday practice.. guess we will just consider this practice.

Girls night out...

I am so lucky to have such a good friend and rommmate Kim. She probably sees me more than she would like to! We live together, work together, exercise together, shop together and have fun nights out together!

Papago Park

I met a girl down here at the pool who is a Traveling PT (Physical Therapist) from Texas. We quickly became friends and she invited me to go hiking. Every Tuesday a group gathers and they go hiking. Papago park is about a mile away from our house and has a bunch of running trails, hiking trails and red rock to climb. It was not the best sunset that night due to the clouds, but we still had a blast!!!