Update

I promise I am not becoming one of those people who never writes on my blog. The internet has been really spotty around here this week. I've hardly been able to get anything done that is internet-related. We're working on getting this resolved and hopefully I can soon post a couple of things I've been working on.

Money free week recap

I'm sitting at work on my break, so who knows how well put together this post will be, but are they ever really well put together?
So... money free week ended last Wednesday, and I still haven't updated about how it went.
The answer: it was a SUCCESS if you can believe it. I hardly can. We actually went the entire week without spending any money-- at least not any money that we hadn't already spent. I guess you could argue that I was spending money every time I used gas to drive somewhere and stuff like that, but we bought all that stuff before the week started.
A recap:
- The hardest days were my days off... especially the weekend. It was tempting to just grab a bite while we were out or something like that.
-Being sick really made it hard some days. I got a really bad cold and I was just exhausted. There were some days that I really wanted a restaurant to cook for us so I wouldn't have to prepare my own lunch for work and stuff for that.
-Even though it felt hard a couple of times, it was mostly pretty easy and didn't feel like a drastic lifestyle change or anything.
-It was empowering. When I made it to the end of the week, I felt so proud of us. We actually can have some self-control when we put our minds to it. Maybe we can transfer some of that energy into exercising, or cleaning the bathroom more regularly, or something else we really ought to be more disciplined about.
I might think about making this a more regular thing. It was nice to not think about bills or bargains or anything like that.

Matthew's visit- the rest

Unfortunately, I did not get nearly as many pictures of this part of the trip.

For his last 2 days here, we first went to the zoo. Even though it was a pretty Saturday morning, it was not too terribly crowded. We got a pretty good view of most the animals without fending off bzillions of small children and mothers with strollers. My favorite were the cheetahs. After this photo was taken, we even got to see them get a little snack.

After the zoo, we went to Eastern State Penitentiary, which is just excellent to visit. We highly recommend it. Unfortunately, one of the best wings of the prison was shut down for some construction work, but we still had a great time. Of course we got some Rita's water ice. That evening, we went to see The Lion King. Our seats kinda sucked, nevertheless, oh.my.goodness. It was fabulous. The lady who played Rafiki had an amazing voice, which was a real highlight. The costumes just blew my mind. The whole thing was better than expected, especially since I think that Disney movie is just okay. Thanks again to Zack's mom and dad, who gave us those tickets for Christmas, and also to my parents for paying to tack Matthew's ticket onto the deal.

For his final day here, we went just across the river to New Jersey to check out the aquarium. We got there at just the right time. It was practically empty, and the hippos were ultra active. We got to see them up close as they swam in the water next to the viewing window. I, of course, forgot the camera for all this, so sorry. The rest of the aquarium was excellent too. We got to go in a shark cage simulator, and also touch some sharks. We saw sea turtles, sea horses, an octopus, penguins, seals, and more. It was fun. And last of all, we took Matthew to our dearest Philly mini golf course, where Zack proceeded to whomp us at mini golf. Oh well... I'll get you next time honey.

And just because I did not put this is anywhere else... somewhere during Matthew's trip here, we just popped into Macy's really quick to show him the building, which is awesome. I would like to remind you that we here in Philadelphia have the coolest Macy's in the world (yes, even better than New York's, and yes, I have been to both). We have the biggest playable pipe organ in the world in our Macy's. And if there was any lingering doubt that it is the coolest, we found out that they actually have a flower show there. When we went in, the main part of the store was just full of trees and flowers. It was beautiful and it smelled nice. My oh my. Can I just say that I love Philly so darn much.

Our thanks to Matthew for coming to visit us. We had a blast! It was nice to get a few days off work and so, so nice to share our love of Philly.

$$$$$

I promise I will get around to posting about the rest of Matthew's visit.... later.

In the meantime, I will blab about something completely different. I love to shop. I really love it. I like bargain shopping. I like window shopping. I just like shopping. I usually go to Target at least a couple of times a week. This week, we have decided to toss things up a little at our house, and we are going to try a money-free week.

Money is stressful. We are always working hard to make ends meet, pay down student loans as fast as possible, save up for future things (an excellent vacation, perhaps a house someday). It's all going well and we are more secure than we have ever been during our married life, which is awesome. But we (or maybe just I and I'm pushing all this onto Z) want to get away from all of that for a bit. So I spent yesterday and a little bit of this morning preparing. I paid all the bills. I put gas in the car. I got my hair cut (turned out terrible, if you were curious. The lady made one side WAY longer than the other, and I didn't notice until I got home and it was dry and styled). I made sure we had some fresh fruit and milk in the house. I did my bargain shopping. I did the laundry. And so, as of noon today, I declare this money-free week. We will not spend any money. We will eat in and brown bag it at work. We will not give any change to vending machines or laundry machines. I will put away my coupons and rebates and let them stay away for an entire week. The one single exception to all of this will be the tithing check I will write on Sunday. It really needs to go in this week as it is for the past 2 weeks (we didn't get one in last week because of conference). Plus that doesn't really count as spending money. It's just giving God some of his money back. But that is the only check that I will cut this week. I don't know how well this is going to work out, but I want to simplify, to take the time to be grateful for what I already have, and to be more level headed about needs vs wants. Something like this might not even be a challenge for a lot of you, but for me, it is, especially since all the Rita's water ice places have recently opened. :) Wish us luck.

Matthew's visit- Philly edition

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, or if you know me at all, you know that I absolutely ADORE Philadelphia. It is an amazing city that offers all the convenience of urban living without the soaring prices of other nearby cities (NY and DC for example). It is a city of neighborhoods, with thriving artistic and cultural scenes. It is a city of diversity. If we decide to leave here at the end of Zack's schooling, I know I will really, really, really miss it.

One of our favorite things to do is share our Philly lovin' with others, so of course we devoted the bulk of Matthew's vacation to showing him around here. On day 2 of his visit (Assuming you don't count the day he flew here), we started out with the Liberty Bell,

Independence Hall,

and the Constitution Center. Don't the boys look just like George Washington?

Next we hopped a bus tour that took us around some of the other fabulous Philly sites. We saw Old City, including the oldest continuously inhabited street in the United States and a church where Ben Franklin and George Washington worshipped. We saw Chinatown, including the Friendship Gate, and we ate lunch at the bustling Reading (pronounced red-ing) Terminal Market (if you've seen National Treasure, that's the place where the lady goes and hides behind the meat counter to get away from the scary bald guy). We saw our lovely City Hall,

and the art museum (insert Rocky music here).

We drove down Broad Street, which has a lot of the theatres and concert halls, and we ended up on South Street, home to many unique shops.

Some highlights of the day: We had a lot of water ice. We watched a guy make an entire painting out of spray paint in a matter of minutes and it turned out pretty darn cool (looked something like the image below).

Some drunk guy came and chatted it up with us at a bus stop for several minutes. He kept spitting on me when he was talking.

That evening was the hockey game, and we watched the Flyers lose to the Montreal Canadiens.

Darn. Still fun though. After seeing so many lovely Philly sites, we decided to watch the Sixth Sense (filmed in Philly) and we picked out a lot of the sites we had seen. For example, we took this picture of the house where they filmed the birthday party scene.

All in all, a most excellent day.

Matthew's visit- DC edition

Well, my last post was kind of depressing perhaps, but take comfort in the fact that the depressing day of work came after 4 days off and a most excellent weekend.

My baby brother is not so little anymore, and in honor of his 18th birthday and upcoming high school graduation, we decided to fly him out to visit us. It was a selfish gift perhaps, as we probably like having visitors more than they like being here, but we did it anyway. He flew into Philly on Wednesday (his birthday) and got in right about the time I was getting off work. We went to our apartment and he got to open his birthday present... Flyers tickets!!

That boy is wild about hockey, so it was a special treat (courtesy of my parents). Since it was getting late, we just went to bed so we could get up the next morning and head down to DC.

Before I get too far into this, I should mention that the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS the whole time he was here. DC was no exception. Matthew had never been to DC before, so we went for a classic overview of the National Mall. We started with a tour of the Library of Congress, and walked around the Capital.

Then we headed down and popped into some of the Smithsonian museums. We went in the Air and Space Museum. One of my favorite things we saw was the Hall of Mammals in the Natural History Museum.

We also saw the Hope Diamond while we were there. And of course we went into the American History Museum for a peek at Dorothy's ruby red slippers, the Star Spangled Banner, and the hat of my beloved Abraham Lincoln.

After our little museum foray, we stopped for a bit of ice cream and a sit down. Thinking we might enjoy some shade from the trees, we plopped down on the grass. Then some bird poop plopped down on Matthew's shoulder. He handled it all quite gracefully (I would've cried and let it ruin the whole day).

After the little bird poop incident, we made our way up to the White House, and back down and around the various monuments (WWII, Vietnam, Lincoln Memorial, Korea, FDR, and Jefferson). If you haven't been to DC, let me assure you that all of this is quite the walk. It just happens to be Cherry Blossom time, and the blossoms were sure blooming in DC. The walk around the Tidal Basin was stunning, and a perfect end to the day. We drove our tired bodies back home and fell into bed.

Med time at work isn't my most shining time in terms of patient care. I usually have an awful lot of patients and an awful lot of meds to give out with a short period of time. I never get to spend enough time with each patient, even though I do always just try to tidy up their rooms a little, make sure they're comfortable, and see what I might need to delegate to my CNA before I leave. It kinda makes me sad.

Yesterday, I really felt it keenly. I went in to give one of my patients his medication. This particular patient, due to brain injury, basically just stayed in bed all day, never speaking, not really even looking at you-- unaware. Well I marched my (not so) little behind into his room and got right to business with his eye drops. Into his eye I put the drop and then startled, realizing he hadn't blinked. Within a couple seconds, I was running down the hall, calling a code, or a stat as we call it at my work, and grabbing the supplies for CPR. Within a few more seconds, I was doing chest compressions on a real human being for the first time in my life. I remember trying to find his pulse, and not really being sure if I could feel one or not because I could feel my heart pounding in every inch of my body, including my fingertips. And I remember feeling terrible, because although it only took me a couple of seconds in his room to realize he wasn't breathing, I didn't notice the second I walked in. Would I have if I had been more focused on my patient and less focused on making sure my meds got out on time? I don't know. We weren't able to save him, and in some ways, it's probably a good thing for him to move on because there really was no quality of life there. I still feel discouraged though. I want to be the best nurse I can be. That entails getting my meds right, but it also entails being mentally present with my patients. Maybe I can step it up a notch here.