Yesterday was my baby's first day of Head Start. It's kind of like Pre-K but only 1/2 day. He was so excited to go then when we got there he froze! He saw the "big kids" and the buses, and all the commotion and he just FROZE. Stood at the doorway of his classroom with such a scared look on his face and then s.l.o.w.l.y opened up to his teacher, Mrs. Hart (I sense a craft idea brewing in my head for Christmas time!) and her assistant (Mrs. Escobar). When I went to pick him up, she was just DELIGHTED to have him in her class. He got the "Super Star Student" award sticker and she said that he is such a good helper!! :) That's my baby boy!! I couldn't help but tear up as I left his school because my little baby is growing up so fast!! Seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant with him.. Seems like just yesterday that I was graduating high school and was fearing having to tell my dad about the pregnancy. And now here he is, in Head Start (I'm REALLY hoping she'll transfer him up!!!) at the elementary school with the big kids..
I began thinking about my first day at school (I was 3 when I did Pre-Pre-K which is the equivalence to Head Start in New York) I remember looking at my mom through the little window on the door, and then running to the sand table where I bullied everyone to get away from. It was MY sand table and no one else could share it! ((OASN: I just thought of a cool sand table idea for our yard!!-- must look up on Pintrest if anyone else did it!!!!)) and now, 20 years later I'm still going to school--MONTHS away from my desired degree-- and I begin to wonder about Justin's future. He says he wants to be a Nurse, like Jay and myself, somedays, then he says he wants to be a doctor, a fire fighter was the most recent "want" career for him. (personally, I'd love for him to be the BEST neuro or cardiac surgeon in the country or even the WORLD! And that would mean 30 more years of school for him...) whatever he decides to be in the future I'll be there to support him and to guide him in the right direction, and it all starts with Head Start!
This is the beginning of the rest of your life, my love!

Running will be the death of me...

I started school Monday which is why I haven't posted since my last post.. I have been busy with Jj's school stuff, my school stuff and my new jib (which I absolutely LOOOVVVEEEE!!!!!--I'll get to that in a minute), that I haven't had the opportunity to go running since Saturday. I tried running today after the 4 day break-- oh! And with 2lb dumbbells...-- well 1/2 way through my run.. On the 2nd uphill my airway constricted and I felt like I was drowning on land. I had to call Jay to come rescue me with my inhaler and had to cut my run short.. Boo...!!!!! I did manage to do 1.3 miles in 25minutes and 0.6 of it was the running.. So, not bad for an asthmatic walking.. Tuesday I began my new job.. Nannying for the almost 3 month old baby. I absolutely LOVE her!!! It's making me want another!! She's so cute!! And jj LOVES her also.. I went on a 2 mile walk with the baby in the jogging stroller on Tuesday and with jj next to me. It was fun but I wish I could have ran... Eh.. Whatever... Tomorrow is my first day at clinicals and I have a HUGE skills "blitz" exam. It's a random skill that I'll be tested on from the skills I have learned in the past year-- foley insertion, wound care, IV infusion, NG tube insertion, med admin via NG or PEG tube, IM and SubQ injections.. Oii...-- wish me luck!!! Then I'll be meeting my new unit (Cardiac unit!-- something good came out of my crappy schedule!) I've heard WAH is DIRTY..

Hurricane? Run!

I went to SAMs club yesterday and bought everything we are going to need for this hurricane. Got 2 cases of water, some yogurts (which are now frozen--if we lose power it'll slowly defrost back into yogurt), baked beans, chef Boyardee (which I found out we've been saying it wrong all these years! It's Boy-Arrr-dee), cup noodles, pb&j.. Bread to last us about a week (some of which I froze as well!), and numerous other stuff. My cabinets are full, and both my freezers are filled with stuff. Saw people buying ELECTRIC mini stove tops also and I just had to giggle.. If we lose power they won't be able to use those stove tops.. I have a solution to that problem! The GRILL! our pots and pans can handle direct fire.. So why not use that as the heating source?? Now I have a small charcoal grill that I could easily put a pot to boil water on.. And since it's small enough the fire will be small right? We shall see.. Hopefully we'll never find out if it works..

Today is Jay's 28th birthday, and I feel bad because we have been stuck here until Irene is gone. We were supposed to go to New York for a family reunion picnic last night.. Would have been great except Irene is heading straight towards NYC.. AND Jay's mom got instructed to go evacuate patients and take them to another location. I'm worried about her.

With all this excitement, I still went out for a run this morning. There is no gas anywhere, and milk & water aisles are EMPTY! I'm going to take pictures to show yall. It's worse than the "rapture" we were expecting. It's worse than any blizzard we've had.. And I'm still praying they close school on Monday. Gives me an extra day to study.. My dad is stuck in Florida until next Saturday because there are no flights to NYC until then. I've told him to transfer his flight to Washington DC for Monday when we are no longer in Irene's path and then I'll pick him up and they can rent a car to get there before their flight is expected to leave. he said he would try-- which in his world is "forget about it". He's such a thickheaded "New Y'awk'er" Lol..
Anywho, to whoever is reading this-- I hope you are all safe and that Irene stays out of your way! Evacuate if you're told to, don't wait til the last minute to pack stuff up.
Until next time
<3

New York Skyline

I've seen everyone with these cool looking nail polish stickers lately.. it's the new craze.. I went searching for them at CVS where I've heard people have gotten them, and turns out they are close to $20 for a 24 pack! I've had to say NO to getting them.. UNFORTUNATELY-- I really liked them.. especially the pink ones. I walked into my favorite bargain store (FiveBelow) and I found these for $3!! Aren't they cute?? I'm so glad I found them! These are my last "hoorah" before school starts on Monday (there's a no nail polish policy in nursing school... BOO!)

Last night Jay made meatballs for the first time. He used my turkey meatloaf recipe. And with my supervision they came out good!  Here he is cutting the sun-dried tomatoes... he was going "ew ew ew.." the whole time-- it's a texture thing.. plus the oil the tomatoes were in made him all grossed out.. lol "I can feel a pimple coming through on my hands" he said as he sliced them, yeah they were THAT oily.. but oh so good!  The mixture. I just dropped them into the sauce and waited for them to float and then allowed them to boil a bit more, I bit into one and it was still kind of gooey. I think next time I'll make them first to ensure they're cooked all the way through. 

Last week when I had the duo birthday party for both my cousin and Jay, I realized how BARE my walls were.. We are renting for now, so there is only so much we can do to the place--especially since we are looking for a house of our own. We went to Target and I instantly fell in love with this "painting" which is a scene from Brooklyn Heights, of the New York Skyline and Brooklyn Bridge. Growing up in Brooklyn, this is the scene I always saw from my bedroom window (until about 4th grade when we moved and I could see the Statue of Liberty while using binoculars.. haha). I just HAD to have it.. problem is, when we went to check out it was $50! (it was in the clearance aisle above a label that stated it was $20) I was so bummed I fought with the manager and tried to get them to give it to me at that price.. it was just "misplaced".. B.S! So I left it, and was actually looking at "How to Create a Window Effect on a Bare Wall" ideas all day yesterday. When I got home, this is what I saw:

He bought it for me! He said that he saw how nostalgic I had gotten when I saw the picture, and that it has true meaning behind it for the both of us. Granted I had the view and he was on the other side of the island, but lots of memories at New York City. My wall is not to bare anymore!!! I am however looking at doing something about that chandelier above our IKEA table... Perhaps one of the jar projects I stumbled upon when I stumbled upon Pinstrest last night. I'll get a picture of it up so you can see, and hopefully I can get some feedback and ideas from you all!

Today, we went on our run!

C25K day 4:

Distance: 1.50 miles

Time: 31:41:16

Pace: 21mins per mile

Not bad at all for someone who has never ran in their life right? Today I am beyond sore again. 150 crunches last night, and 150 leg lifts. Well, thats all for now!

Running log. C25K day 3

Today's jog/walk went well!
Milage: 1.19 mi
Time: 29:45:02

I had the two 4 year olds.. a 9 year old and the dog.. Let me say. I thought it would be hard at first with such a huge crowd, but it ended up going well! I'm proud of the kids and I'm proud of myself for continuing this and not giving up especially since I'm so sore from last night's crunches and leg lifts (did 100 of each-yikes!!). I'm thinking about going out for another run with the kids after lunch & naps..

To Do:
[ ] read chapters for Monday's lecture
[ ] buy walk/running shoes
[ ] buy work out clothes. My long pants aren't cutting it anymore..
[ ] survive the last day (tomorrow) with the family...

Turkey Meatloaf, red velvet cake and a run

I've never been a turkey person. Growing up, turkey was mainly for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Recently I read in my friend's blog Summer Creations that she had recently switched her family to turkey. Decided to do the same.

I searched high and low for a turkey recipe I would try out with my family, and have it be simple enough that if we liked it that I would be able to prepare quick enough expecially wth school literally right around the corner. I found this recipe for Turkey Meatloaf and decided to try it out! Let me say.. I was a bit scared at first.. but oiiii vie!! GREAT!

 Bread crumbs, feta cheese, eggs, parsley, sun-dried tomatoes ready for the turkey.

 Ready to be mixed, and baked...

I read on Little Pink Monster that the American culture has us eating pasta with all the sauces and the empty calories.. So I decided to give it a try. Let me say... This dish has made me realized that indeed we have been eating pasta the wrong way for YEARS!!!

 I made some bow-ties with peas and Extra Virgin Olive Oilm salt, pepper and a bit of butter to bring it all together, let me just say. YUUUMMMM!!!!!!!!!! The family ate all of it!!! and asked for more!!! I'm thinking this very "concuction" will be delicious meatballs!
For dessert-- the oh so SINFUL Red Velvet Cake.... oi vie... OH! and some ginataang... yep.. it's the DREADED week... ugh...

So this year, I have promised myself that on top of my already crazy busy schedule, I have decided to take running as an extracurricular activity. I have signed up for the SearchCure walk in September, a Halloween run and a Turkey run in November. I've never ran a day in my life, and so therefore in order to succeed in my walk, and the two runs, I have to train! I found the Couch to 5k training and have decided to use it to help me train. Today was day 2 of the 1st week.. and I feel GREAT!! Tomorrow I will add more info of my distance and all.
<3

What do you get when you mix snow peas, carrots, baby corn, broccoli, shrimp, ginger, soy sauce and sesame seeds?? That's what was for dinner tonight.. :)