I know it's Not {Tuesday Topics}

Hey everyone, I know that I'm a little behind but I found this a few days late so I'm going back in time for a {Tuesday Topics} post on a Thursday night. I found this topic list from a fellow nurse blogger named Lauren also and really liked all the ideas :)

Ten: Things that make you happy

Well I can think of a lot more than ten but I will save you the long list and just tell you a few! 

1 // Jesus! My heart sings for Him and I know the creator of the Heavens has my life in His hands. I really don't know how people go through life without faith and I'm not about to try and find out!! I rely on God for so many things and pray to Him often during times of fear, anxiety, and blessings! If you have any questions about The Man Upstairs..feel free to ask me :)

2 // My Family Another easy one, they make me over filled with Joy! They have shaped me into the woman I am today and have given me the best morals, childhood, and foundation that a girl could ask for! 

Love them to Pieces!

3 // My Husband I brag about my husband often because he does just make me so happy! He is a strong, caring man that does remarkable work with 2 kids that are handicapped and his second job also shows his amazing heart because he works at Omaha Home for Boys which is a place that helps troubled teen boys. He is a wonderful role-model for those kids and I'm so glad that God picked him to be my partner in life! I find the little things he says to me to be the sweetest even if it is just telling me to drive safe to work!

4 // Kobe Ok this lil fur ball just makes me giddy! He is so stinking cute and makes me laugh everyday. I love his split personality between cuddling with me while I sleep and trying to attack my wrist when he wants to play. He is a Siamese cat that has a lot of energy and climbs on the counters far too often but I have a hard time disciplining him when he looks at me with those precious blue eyes. 

5 // Coffee This is a must for a night shift nurse and I really do have an addiction to coffee. I crave it even when I am the slightest bit tired and give other nurses a funny look if they tell me they don't like coffee! My "usual" from Starbucks is a Grande Skinny Hazelnut Latte but if I'm in the area of 114th and Blondo I love to go to Foxhollow Coffee Shop by our old apartment building because I love the atmosphere there!

Of course I had to get a Latte on my Wedding day! Thanks to my Sister!!

6 // Sweating yes this one seems odd but there is nothing better than getting a great sweat going from an intense workout. Whether it be a zumba class or a job outside, I enjoy sweating and don't feel like I have really gotten a decent workout until a sweat through my sports bra. 

7 // Ice Cream me being the chocoholic that I am (my mom ate WAY too many sweets while I was in the womb!) I love a good blizzard from DQ or a big bowl of Blue Bunny Cookies & Cream Ice Cream. Did you know that I grew up 19 miles from the ice cream capital of the world?!? Living that close to the Wells Blue Bunny plant probably has something to do with my love of ice cream!

8 // Country Music Again this one reminds me of home! I love my pandora station of Country Hits and even though I would call myself a true hick (Alex would disagree) I still love a good country concert or listening to country radio whenever I'm traveling back to the farm. 

My Favs - Carrie Underwood, SheDaisy, Lady A.

9 // The King of Queens Probably one of my favorite shows (behind Friends and Boy Meets World) Kevin James is so hilarious and everything about this show makes me laugh out loud! It gets me through my nights of insomnia and is full of funny topics! Alex has a friend that reminds us of "Doug" and we always bring up episodes  to talk about whenever he is around! 

10 // Crafting Yeah I liked it so much I even opened an Etsy Shop because of it! I have enjoyed scrapbooking and creating gifts since as long as I can remember! It comes in handy when I want something with a special meaning to give to a friend or family member and after I finish a Pinterest project I get very very excited and can't wait to show everyone ;) 

Follow me Here

10 + 1 // My Friends I have been blessed with some pretty amazing women in my life that have been through with ups and downs with me! They are always up for a good time, make me laugh, and are there for me when I just need a hug! My favorite ladies (you know who you are) will continue to be my lifelong friends even as we get wrinkles and can no longer find an excuse to wear our 80's costumes!

    

Funny Moments from Our First Year {9 Months} of Marriage {Link Up}

Hello All!
 If your reading this from an area that does not have as beautiful weather as Omaha,NE today then I'm deeply sorry. I'm writing this post from my deck, basking in the spring breeze and watching Kobe Kitty swat at bugs! I've got coffee brewing (because it is morning for me) and my sister on my mind today because it is her first day at her Mayo Nursing Internship. Mayo is an amazing hospital that my sister has the wonderful opportunity of working/learning at this summer for 10 weeks! And even though I miss her very very much, I know this is a great step for her future career as a nurse {she does follow in some great footsteps} This week I will have 2 days off- 2 days on - then 2 days off again and I am kinda liking that schedule. It has given me time to post 5 new items to my shop!

But on to the Link Up! This comes from the new blog I follow Wifessionals and even though we haven't been married for a year yet, I thought I  would document some of our funny moments in our first 9 months. But first I wanted to give you a little background on our relationship if you don't know us that well. Alex and I met about 7 months after I had moved to Omaha. I was busy with my first nursing job at The Nebraska Medical Center on the night shift and pretty much just had time to sleep and go to the gym. Luckily (and I thank God all the time for this) I had chosen to become a member at 24 hour fitness instead of the YMCA. And 24 hour fitness does play a role in our relationship because we met at the gym at 2:00 AM! He was helping his friend Richard train for the marines and I had was just stretching following my workout. {I love telling this part of the story} He came up to me and said "Hey I was watching you workout and just wanted to say I think you are gorgeous" I was pretty dumbfounded and replied with "Even when I'm all sweaty??" Haha! But we struck up a conversation and the rest is history...Not a very long history mind you because that was in December 2010. By June 2011 we were engaged at Yellowstone National Park and Married at Heartland of America park in September 2012  :)

One of our Engagement Pictures in Grand Teton National Park

I think the funny moments in our relationship started right away from ordering pizza late at 1 AM on our wedding night to the crazy start to our Honeymoon. By my fault completely I thought I had reserved an All-Inclusive resort for our honeymoon. (Please use a travel agent folks!) I should have known by the price but I guess I was just so excited to book our honeymoon to Aruba that I brushed past that. Well as you can imagine I was very frustrated and in tears when we got there and found out our specific room was not part of  the all inclusive part of the resort. Alex tried to pick up my spirits and said "It's ok hunny we can just go to the grocery store and make our own meals, plus we don't drink that much to get our money's worth out of all-inclusive anyways" This is the part where I whine and exclaim "I don't want to COOK on my Honeymoon!!" After our first trip to the grocery store in Aruba we found out that things were pretty pricey and I was very frustrated and kicking myself, thinking that we would probably spend all of our wedding gift money just for food in Aruba for a week! But Alex's stomach had another plan. He was very hungry on our first night there and we decided to just go for a walk around our resort and maybe find a restaurant to eat at. His keen nose sniffed out some steak and seafood at a buffet on our resort. We walked in and Alex immediately grabbed a plate and said that we would probably just pay at our table afterwards. I was hesitant but all the food looked so good so we filled our plates and sat down. When we sat down I explained to Alex that I had noticed everyone was wearing green bracelets on their wrist. And I will never forget what he said "Hunny just hide one of your wrists under the table, this won't be very romantic but we are going to eat fast and get out of here!" Folks I don't condone our behavior and I don't want you to think of us as some Midwest cheap moochers but it was our Honeymoon.....and I did think we got the all inclusive.....and we were pretty hungry ;) We of course just ordered water (we didn't want to press our luck) hid our wrist under  the table and walked towards the dark shoreline with our bellies full!
I felt bad about it, and was like, ok we got one free meal now we will just explore restaurants for the rest of the trip but Alex was like "We could do this EVERY night!" with a big grin on his face. And yet again Alex's stomach won and I was a compliant wife. By our fourth night of mooching I was ordering wine and going back for seconds on dessert! Again I feel bad about this but if you tried their chicken nachos you would probably side with me ;)

My Hubby and the Beautiful Aruba Coastline

Shopping Downtown Aruba..Store named after me of course ;)

Squid Suctioned to Alex's Shoulder!! 

On the Snorkeling Catamaran cruise in Aruba 

Aruba was an amazing and exciting trip but that wasn't the end of our funny moments. I lot of our hilarious moments stem from being first time homeowners. Alex is not so handy and I am a DIY-er so I try to make everything "my little project". Which ends in many projects laying around the house, Alex frustrated and making fun of me for all my little messes and a LOT of help from friends and family to get our home in tip top shape. Just last month we were fighting over using the lawn mower! Alex was taking pride in the mower he bought and I was helping him bag the grass. Now I have mowed a lot of grass in my day (being a farm girl and all) and wanted to try my hand at mowing. I was watching Alex and starting to get bored so I motioned for him to hand over the mower and let me drive! He quickly replied "I want to do the first mowing!" Oh Brother!!! After convincing him to let me try I was mowing but not to his standards I guess because he said I looked like a Grandma driving it! I'm use to a riding lawn mower not this dinky lil push mowers!

Our First Home!!

 The second topic that always stirs up some hilarious comments have to do with our cat Kobe. He is always doing something that irritates Alex but those same things I just find are adorable :) From the way Kobe cuddles with us to me telling Alex I was going to start toilet training him...Kobe adds a lot of enjoyment to our (mostly my) lives. 

Snaggle Tooth!

Bring on the many many more funny moments in our marriage! Things that I am more likely to find much more funny than Alex ;) Hope you Enjoyed and Have a blessed rest of the day! I'm off to catch in a quick run before work!

Great Start to a Fantastic Weekend!

Alex told me a couple days ago that his family was coming over Friday night. I didn't really think to much of it and didn't put two and two together that it would be a celebration for my birthday! So when Alex got home from work he had a DQ ice cream cake in hand and was ready to mow/clean the house to get ready. I woke up at 4 pm because I had worked the last 3 nights and had to still go get an outfit for this weekend and pick up some groceries so I was pressed for time. But I found everything I was looking for clothes wise at Old Navy and got an awesome deal by signing up for their card ( I don't normally do this and would have said no right away but it was $15 for just checking to see if you were approved and 25% off additionally if you were approved = $40 savings for me!!)

After a quick trip to Hy-vee I was back home where the party was already starting. Easton was playing baseball in our backyard with Julie and Alex and Eric were getting the grill ready. We had PLENTY of food..brats, potato/pasta salad, watermelon, baked beans, corn on the cob, bacon wrapped chicken, chips and salsa. I was in Carb Heaven! This was the first day in 2 weeks that I didn't count my carbs and aim for staying below 100 grams so I indulged a bit :) I counted them after everyone left and lets just say I had never seen that high of a number before! But on Monday it is time to buckle down because I am actually enjoying this low-carb diet and seeing results!
Alex's friend Cody and his friend Megan came over too and Cody even got be a card and gift certificate to Banana Republic. Alex's mom and dad got me a fancy garden accessory and a cute card. Debbie got me a lilac plant.



"I was worried you weren't going to get a birthday card with a cat wearing a sweater on it"






It was a great time and the ice cream cake hit the spot! Alex doesn't want to run our air because we need a new filter so it has been pretty stuffy in our house but thank goodness the fans work!

I just feel so blessed to have a husband that put all of this together and remembered me on my birthday enough to plan a little grill out. And I feel especially blessed to have been welcomed into an amazing family!


___________________________________________

My Life This Second!

Favorite Funny Moment


Favorite Song
"Starts With Me" Tim Timmons
It's so catchy and has a beautiful meaning..Check out a sample here http://www.klove.com/music/artists/tim-timmons/songs/starts-with-me-lyrics.aspx
(Chorus)
You're my revival song, you start where I belong
On my knees, on my knees 
When I am weak or strong you meet me here
When I'm on my knees, on my knees 
Oh, it starts with me

Favorite Read 
Just finished The Great Gatsby in preparation for seeing the movie. I read it in High school but needed a refresher. Currently I'm on Book 2 of the Fifty Shades Series and I'm trying to finish it soon because the plot is kinda BLAH. 

Favorite Moment
Tonight Alex's brother Eric said that they have been doing a bible study with their neighborhood block. Eric told Alex that he would really enjoy it and he told me that he is going to try and get Alex to go. Makes my heart jump for joy because Eric is one of the biggest influences in Alex's life right now and I know that if someone he looks up to can give him the push to go to a bible study then Alex would really enjoy it :)

Favorite Goose-bumps Story
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/51904669/ns/local_news-chicago_il/t/man-finds-million-lotto-ticket-cookie-jar/#.UZc2bLWUTmg
I heard this story briefly at work this morning and then heard more about it on Klove today. This man lost his 14 year old daughter after she had several seizures in August 2012. He was finally cleaning out her room and found a winning lottery ticket priced at $4.85 Million. The man was facing foreclosure and now he can pay for his kids to go to college and is even donating some of the money to his church. His daughter listened to Klove and it is just so amazing what God does when you least expect it! I truly believe this was a way that the girl could wrap her arms around her family after her loss and let them know that everything will be ok.

Favorite Piece of Mail



My business cards came in the mail today for my Etsy Shop :)

Lots to Blog About...

Hi Everyone & Happy Belated Mother's Day! I did not get to see my mom today however I did text her and talk to her on the phone! She spent most of the day cleaning in preparation for Michael's graduation party next week! I am so excited to be home in 5 days to help him celebrate. He is the last Deichmann child to graduate and then he will be off to Iowa State! Alex and I will drive up next saturday after my shift at the pregnancy center and that is when the fun will begin. Then the next day is Mike's actual big graduation day and my birthday ;)
I will have to import my posts from my other blog just to keep everything in one place but for right now I can't access it because the site is down and hopefully it is just lasting during the weekend and will be up and running soon!
This past week I started my low carb (sorta high fat) diet and it went pretty well. I tried to stay between 50-70 grams of carbs a day which is really hard to do once you start adding everything up. I have been mostly filling up on string cheese, chicken breast, eggs, almonds and salads. I learned about the low carb diet from a friend at work who is diabetic and she has lost over 30 pounds. I was tired of exercising and not seeing any results so I decided to try something drastic. So far I am down one pound and feel pretty good and have tried to "enjoy" figuring out low carb meals. Alex hasn't liked it too much until I made chicken breasts with cream cheese wrapped in bacon and then he didn't think it was so bad ;) The trickiest part is getting enough calories so that I can work out and not be so drained before and afterwards. On days that I workout I tend to cheat a little bit and my carb count is closer to 80-100 grams. I urge you to count your carbs for just one day just to see how little 100 grams is and you will be surprised!
On Wednesday I went to the eye doctor because I hadn't had an appointment in probably 2 years and really needed some new contacts. The check up went fine and I looked at the glasses afterwards because my current glasses I'm not able to wear in public because they are in pretty bad shape. I tried on a few and sent pictures of 3 options to Kendra, Megan and Alex and they all agreed that they liked this pair the best.


 So I'm going to go order those this week sometime :) Big frames are really in right now and I was hesitant to go with a trendy pair but I actually really like them and they are comfortable. I think these will be a pair that I will be more apt to wear in public.
On my days off I went to Hobby Lobby and Lowe's to get supplies for more listings to my shop and also for garden pots and flowers for my Mother's Day project. I really actually love Hobby Lobby a little too much and after spending way too much there I was equipped to make more decor to sell. The shop hasn't taken off yet but I did order business cards and am close to having over 20 items listed. I continue to look at discussion boards to get more help with selling and other tips for my shop. I am also going to set up a little table at my aunt's garage sale and have sent emails through work to everyone. I really hope I can make something from this (and get my money back from what I spent at Hobby Lobby)
Here are a couple of the new listings and again the link to my shop.
   
   
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SomethingBeautiful19

Please tell all your friends and family about my new shop and remember that I can do custom orders for weddings, showers or your home.

Ok, enough about that... My mom's gift I worked on turned out great! I got the idea off of pinterest of course and spray painted clay plots and filled them with flowers from Lowe's. Here is the finished product!
 I have to add one more coat of spray paint and also another pot to the top of it. The project was really simple and I'm going to have to make one for myself really soon! The only bad part was that I got in big trouble when I got a little spray paint on our drive way :( Alex was not impressed and I made sure I had plenty of cardboard the next time around so that it wouldn't happen again. Since the pots already have a center drain hole in them it was easy to thread them onto a piece of rebar and tilt them side to side. I am going to add a little sign on it that says "Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" because I think that would be appropriate ;) I know she will love it and I can't to see her face when we give it to her.

The other big endeavor that I have been working on is potty training Kobe. Yes you read that right...I am trying to get Kobe to go in the toilet! I bought a kit off of groupon and have heard success stories about it and my friend Kaela has even used it on her cats. There are several steps and the whole process will probably take close to 2 months but he is doing well. First we put the litter box on top of the toilet. I rewarded him with treats each time he went in the right place. Now we are at the stage of filling the trays and setting them right in the toilet seat. He did ok with this step but has yet to go #2 in there so I'm worried he is either going somewhere else (which I don't think is the case) or he is holding it in because he doesn't like the new toilet idea. So it is a work in progress. Here is what our

basement toilet looks like currently (because I know you are dying to know!)











Fingers crossed he will get used to it because it will save on litter cost, better for the environment and is less messy! After all that hard potty training work this is what he looked like afterwards...
 
Gosh isn't he Cute!?!?!

I'm finishing up my last shift of the weekend and am halfway through. I have a young girl tonight that took a bunch of sleeping pills because she got in a fight with her boyfriend. It is so sad and I just feel for this girl. I try to think back on when I was her age and if I was in a situation like that. I won't ever understand how someone gets to that point and I wish people would ask for help or talk to someone. Luckily she will be just fine and the medication she took is not too harmful on her body and will be fully reversible. I have one short day off before another 3 days stretch and I think I might go to "The Great Gatsby" tomorrow night even if I have to go by myself because I really want to see the movie. Megan saw it and said it was really good but that means I have to finish the rest of the book tonight at work.

Well I think I'm all caught up for now! Talk to you guys soon!
-Lauren