A New Start In April

It’s April 1st! The start of a brand new month. What better way to start a new month than by getting back into blogging! I’m hoping that not only will blogging happen more often, but that a lot of other changes will happen as well. The year 2012 has been nothing but crazy, hectic, and stressful. Between working full time with one job and part time with another, along with a lot of personal family issues, I am eager and happy to welcome a new start.

Some of the things I’m hoping to change this month:

  • Blog more
  • Better time management
  • Get back into exercising regularly (I’m currently into Zumba!)
  • Take more pictures
  • Stick to weekly meal menus

I have been horrible at time management this year. For example, I have laundry that needs to be done and here I sit, with my cup of coffee and I could have started a load before sitting down. :s

I used to run while I was in my final semesters of college. When I moved and started a job, it was hard to stick with it since it is always dark when I leave for work and dark by the time I get home. Now that the sun is out longer, I could get back into running, but I recently checked out Zumba. It’s different, but a lot of fun! And it gives you a great workout.

I finally purchased a decent smart phone this year that is capable of taking amazing photos. I have been taking more pictures this year, but of certain subject matter (my Aunt recently had a baby and my entire photo folder is basically all of him). I would really like to get into taking more leisure photos. Speaking of photos… I did take one this morning:

Kupo is digging the new desk!

 

My sister didn’t want her desk anymore and the one I had was huge and awkward. So I disassembled, trashed it, and my parents brought me this one. It’s smaller, has more organization, and obviously Kupo approves!

I have been really bad at sticking to a weekly meal menu. I believe this is highly important for someone who is on a budget and only needs food for one person. I’ve been horrible at this because of the hours of my job and the recent changes in my routine due to outside factors. I am now more than ever motivated to get back on track with my food budget and sticking to a weekly plan!

While typing this up, I’ve already washed and put away some laundry. :D The month is already off to a good start!

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A Quick Moment

My new job has been keeping me so incredibly busy! Correction: my two jobs! Argh! But I wanted to share a few things since I have a few moments of free time.

Check out this years carved Halloween pumpkin of 2011!

Oh how scary!

I’m loving that I’m just now realizing that my little outdoor patio table is rusting on the bottom. Oops!

Oh well. I’m pretty proud of this pumpkin and excited that I have a place to have a pumpkin this year. I did not participate in trick or treating  due to having to work late. One of the many perks of my job, blah. I didn’t dress up for work this year, but I did have a very festive manicure, which I failed to take a picture of. I put spider webs on the tips of my nails and so many kids noticed them and thought they were cool.

I did however take a picture of my current manicure.

My aunt used to do nails professionally and she gave me all her rhinestones she used on clients. So over the weekend I came up with this cool manicure using a delicate pink nail polish for the base and using one of my Bundle Monster plate tip designs. The rhinestones are glass and they are surprisingly still holding up after 3 days!

I’m loving that I have a job where nail polish isn’t an issue and I can play around to come up with some nice nail art!

The new job is going very well. I currently have 18 patients and that number grows every week. I’m excited about the holidays coming up and actually being here to help cook, bake, and celebrate!

As for Kupo, he’s still as mischievous and fluffy as ever.

I like to lounge.

 

 

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A Quick Recap

  • Moved into my new apartment
  • Started working full time at a movie theater/restaurant
  • Managed to get sick with a respiratory infection in late July (couldn’t work for like a week!)
  • Landed my first big girl job at an optometrist’s office as a vision therapist!
  • Turned 26
  • Got sick AGAIN during my 3rd week working my new job (boo)

 

A Few Notes:

Kupo is still having a bit of a hard time adjusting to a new place and with me being gone a lot more working. I’m seeing improvement in him though so I’m hoping he continues getting used to things.

"I am liking my new big window!"

When I was offered the vision therapy job I decided to still keep the serving job at the movie theater for some extra money. I only work one 10 hour shift on Saturdays. So my time is being divided up between 2 jobs, Kupo, family, and friends. I am one busy lady. I am loving having steady income and being able to put money into savings. Something I haven’t been able to do for years while being a college student.

My birthday this year was awesome. I received gift cards, money, a necklace from my sister that is handmade from Florida, and my big present this year was a 4 piece luggage set from my parents. It’s so nice and I’m sad that I don’t have anywhere to go to use it for awhile (I get vacation time towards the end of next summer)! My co workers surprised me the day of my birthday (I had to work 8 to 7) with a birthday lunch that everyone contributed to! They even made me the most delicious apple cream cheese bunt cake! I got a card that was signed from everyone in the office, even the doctors! They all expressed how glad they were that I was now apart of their team! That was one of the best birthday surprises I received in a long time.

My new job is going extremely well. I am still in training but I will start taking on my own patients very soon. I will have to save what vision therapy is and what exactly my job entails for another post. But I love the work I’ve been doing and the work I will start doing with my very own patients. My co workers are all very nice and supportive and I feel like this was the perfect first job out of college for me.

As for this doom sickness I can’t seem to shake… ugh. I rarely get sick, but when I do its bad for like a week. So when I started getting sick before my birthday I was hoping that it was a 24 hour fluke since I had just been sick 3 weeks prior. But here it is almost a week later and I have a blazing sore throat, a bad cough, and a head full of gunk. So much for rarely getting sick. I’m hoping its due to the severity of allergy season this year and that the medicine I have been taking will do its thing before I have to work my one shift a week at the movie theater tomorrow.

Time for another round of medicine and some hot tea for my sore throat!

 

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My Reality

Here is my reality:

Mountain of bleh!

I move in a week. Just seven days. I’m excited and stressed at the same time, but mostly excited. I’m still working my job at the TV station on campus right up until I move. I’m currently still jobless in my new city, but keep your fingers crossed. I have several big possibilities in the works. I hate waiting games. But I do have a place to live! It’s bigger than my current place and has luxuries I have forgotten about! Like a garbage disposal and a dishwasher (whoa!!!!). I will even have my own bedroom (I currently live in an efficiency). So in-between packing up boxes (Kupo is loving this by the way) and working, I am cleaning like nobody’s business, while still cooking yummy healthy foods.

Lo Mein!

Chicken Stir Fry

Mega Stir Fry!

I’ve only documented two meals I have made in the past several weeks. Meals around here are normally packing/cleaning breaks. The first picture is of a Lo Mein I made with beef and vegetables! I used both a frozen variety and fresh veggies and the lo mein sauce was super simple. It’s just water, soy sauce, and a beef bouillon cube! I served this with just some whole wheat pasta. The second dish is just a chicken stir fry I made using chicken broth and this sesame ginger marinade. I ate this over steamed brown rice! Both were awesome and packed full of vegetables!

I’m still partaking in my daily morning yogurt bowl. I even made my own granola to sprinkle on top for some crunch. Next time I make a batch I will take some pictures to post. This granola was so good and simple, I’m never buying store bought granola again! I love how I can put in it whatever I have in my pantry at the time. My first batch had sunflower seeds, chopped hazelnuts, and dried apricots! Yum! Since I’m a week away from moving, most of my meals and snacks include things I need to eat right away so I’m not hauling a whole kitchen full of food to a new city. I’m trying to eat up all my cereals, pastas, frozen meat and veggies, and of course any cheeses, cottage cheese, milk, eggs, and lunch meat I have in the fridge. It’s been a challenge to get creative each meal since I can’t just go to the store and stock up on stuff I’m wanting or don’t have. Yesterday for a snack I had a tortilla with peanut butter, a few chocolate chips sprinkled with hazelnuts! It kind of tasted like a chunky version of Nutella and peanut butter! Last night for dinner I made a meatloaf using some frozen hamburger I had, and of course stuff I needed to get rid of! I made garlic smashed potatoes using up the last of my red potatoes, and steamed some cauliflower. I’m slowly running out of easy stuff to make with what I have left, so the real challenge on top of getting all my belongings into boxes, is eating what I have without caving and going shopping.

 

We’ll see how this goes! xD

Until then, Kupo wants you to know he’s helping with the move too…. kind of.

Wise Kupo

Where we going mama?

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Stress Is My Middle Name

I never realized how much of a full time job looking for a full time job would be. Most of my time is spent checking job posting websites and trying to think of new websites I could visit with potential job opportunities. I have applied for more jobs than I can count. My bulletin board above my desk is covered in post-it notes with all the jobs I have applied for.

On top of looking for a job, I’m working my part time job. Since it’s summertime, my hours have increased so most of my time is spent at the TV station. Normally it’s not so bad, but we’ve been having server space issues which causes play list issues. So after a full week of dealing with chaos of all kinds, I decided I needed a day that did not involve computers of any kind. I had to work the early morning shift this weekend, but I made plans with my brother to have a Battlestar Galactica marathon and eat comfort food. We watched hours upon hours of Season 2 episodes while eating Pizza Bagels, Chips Ahoy, and Goobers. Towards the evening my brother got started on making Chicken and Dumplings from scratch. Which is how we ended our day (with more Battlestar of course). It was a good day.

I am sad to report that I have not been running since before my graduation. My ipod went on the fritz so I didn’t have my nifty app to help me keep track of my workout and progress. I have been doing yoga though, but I really miss running. I finally got my ipod to work properly so I’m hoping to get some running in this week. My work schedule makes it hard to run in the early mornings (I have to be at work by 6:30 four mornings a week now), but now that I have my ipod working again, some rearranging will occur to make time for running in the park.

I did create a new yogurt bowl for breakfast this morning!

Summer fruit!!

I bought all kinds of fruit at the store yesterday. Decided this morning to make a fruit salad. Peaches, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and bananas make up this yummy salad! I decided this morning I would top my Chobani yogurt with this fruit!

Yummiest yogurt bowl ever!

I used blueberry Chobani yogurt since I didn’t have blueberries to put in the fruit salad! So far this is my favorite yogurt bowl that I’ve made! I made a huge bowl of this fruit salad so I think this will be a repeat breakfast tomorrow morning and maybe the morning after that as well!

If only large amounts of fruit were proven to lower stress levels. A girl can dream.

 

 

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