My Staycation

We all know what a vacation is, I am on my very own stay-cation. My husband is gone fishing in Canada until Friday, so I am left to tend to the house on my own for the week. It's kind of nice having the place to myself to do what I want when I want. Don't get me wrong, I miss my husband and I look forward to his return, but in the mean time, it's nice to do everything on my own terms.

I went grocery shopping and planned my own meals for the next couple days. Tonight I am making BLTs, sweet corn, and green beans from our garden. I think I make better meals when John is away. I also stocked up on Pineapple and Strawberries, YUM!

Otherwise, nothing too exciting is going on during my vacation-away-from-my-husband. I plan to get a massage tomorrow, maybe some retail therapy, and some other errands. Also, the lawn needs to be mowed. All in all, I am enjoying my time but looking forward to this weekend :D

In the meantime, I am just relaxing at home...(to be clear, this picture is of Hawaii, but it makes me think about relaxing on the beach)

Camping in Minnesota

This last weekend John and I headed to Minnesota to do some camping with my parents and my sister. We went to Diamond Lake where my parents park their camper for the summer. We spent Friday evening setting up and sitting around the campfire in the heat. It was very hot and humid all weekend and the mosquitoes were terrible! I put on about 3 layers of bugspray throughout the evening. 

Saturday was another hot/humid day. It was about 90 degrees with a heat index around 100. We went fishing in the morning and actually had some pretty good luck. My mom caught 3 northerns, and the rest of at least caught one. We ate fish for lunch and then headed out on the boat again to do some swimming, tubing, and knee boarding. It felt really good to jump in the lake and cool down! In the evening we played 31 with some neighbors for a while and then called it a night due to the bugs and humidity.

Sunday came much too fast, and consisted of a little fishing in the morning, some bean bags, a light lunch, and then the four hour drive home. The weekend flew by, but I had a great time, minus the 52 mosquito bites I sustained. It was a fun weekend though, and it felt good to finally get to the lake this summer.

Leeches at work

I usually don't blog about work, because as a nurse, I have to be very careful about what I say. HIPPA (basically an acronym for confidentiality) is very strict on these things, and since I like having my nursing license, obviously I have to keep the details to a minimum. However, I decided to blog about work because I was able to do something different at work the other day.

We had a patient that needed leech therapy. We received sterilized leeches from Pharmacy, and then every half hour or so we had to put a leech on the patient. The point of leech therapy is to increase blood flow to the area you are working on. Let me just say that I am not a huge fan of leeches. They don't freak me out, but I don't especially like to play with them either.

I spent a lot of time figuring out how leeches attach and how to work with them. They were really frustrating! You would think with all the blood around the leech would attach no problem, but they are fussy little things. So anyway, I did not expect to have to handle leeches as a nurse, they definitely did not teach me that in nursing school!

Classics

I love to read. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, I usually have a book on my nightstand. Usually I like to read for entertainment, so I enjoy books by James Patterson, Nicholas Sparks, or Dan Brown. These books are usually a pretty easy read and don't require a lot of thinking.

I was browsing Barnes and Noble ( a store I absolutely love to browse) and I discovered their classical book section. I remember reading some of these books in high school English classes, so I thought I would try some of the books I have never read. I bought Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice.

I am about halfway through Wuthering Heights and I am really enjoying it! It is definitely a different read from modern books, but there is a reason these books are considered classics and have survived as long as they have. I am also enjoying reading a book that has a little more substance and makes me think. So if you are searching for a good read I suggest finding a classic book that works for you. I also recommend Little Women, The Jungle, Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men, or The Grapes of Wrath. These are all great reads and not too difficult to understand.

So, challenge yourself and read a classic!