A "Wicked" good weekend

Happy fourth Sunday of Advent!

I have good news!  I am a soon-to-be Riley nurse!  I got a call on Thursday saying that I got the job and will be starting around January 31st!  I'd say that nothing can top that Christmas present :)

Last Friday (the 10th) Matt and I went to my parents' house and enjoyed pizza with them as an early celebration for Mom's birthday on the 12th.

On Sunday the 12th we ended up getting a couple inches of snow.  Mom told me that Westfield ended up canceling school on Monday due to high winds blowing all the snow through the corn fields and over the country roads.  I think the real reason they canceled was to give Mom and extra day off for her birthday!

Matt's Grandma Draper's birthday was also the 12th.  Happy birthday, Marty!

I got ambitious on Sunday night and decided to start painting our laundry room.  My dad has been talking about installing some shelving in that room and I figured that the room should be painted before he did that for us (since the white walls were looking quite scuzzy and scuffed up).  The laundry room and the guest bathroom are the only two rooms in the house that have not been painted since we have lived here and I have planned to remedy that for a while.  Unfortunately my endeavor was cut short after I had painted the woodwork and was starting to paint the ceiling.  A huge drop of ceiling paint landed in my eye, as well and a bit of the popcorn ceiling material.  After yelling a bit, removing my contact, and running my eye under water, I opted to take a break for the night.  (Lesson learned: safety glasses!)  I ended up finishing as much as I could of the laundry room on Wednesday.  Our laundry room is also the furnace/air conditioner/ water heater room and I was unable to paint behind some of the large appliances.  I am hoping that maybe my dad can figure out how to paint back there.  But for the most part, we have a nice light-gray laundry room!

On Wednesday night we ended up getting another three or so inches of snow.  It took me a little over an hour to get home from work (when it normally takes me a half hour) on Thursday morning because part of the road that I take still had not been plowed and it was quite hard to figure out where the lines were.

On Saturday (the 18th), Matt's parents came up to stay for the weekend.  We enjoyed catching up with them, playing with Thor, and eating jambalaya (and gluten-free brownies).  They came up because today (Sunday the 19th) we went with them, my parents, and Eric to see the musical "Wicked."  It seems as though everyone enjoyed it...I know I did!  I actually just got done hinting very heavily to Matt that a nice last-minute gift idea for me would be the soundtrack to the show...

There really isn't all that much happening here.  We are just getting ready for the holiday...finishing wrapping presents, baking cookies, etc.  When Bob and Sheila came over this weekend they brought a couple little host/hostess gifts including some cookie and gingerbread cake mix and decorating materials.  As soon as they left I got busy with baking!  There is a pitch-in at work tomorrow (Monday) for a co-worker who is transferring to another floor and I am bringing gingerbread cupcakes in for all to enjoy.

We are planning to go to Kentucky on Christmas Eve and to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there.  On Christmas Day afternoon we are coming back to Indy and spending the evening with my parents.  On the 26th the Schlaud's are stopping by on their way to Michigan and we will be able to see them as well as Grandma and Grandpa Ward (they will be at my parents' house the 24th-27th).

We can't wait until the holiday is here so that we are able to see most of you!  We hope everyone has a wonderful (and hopefully not too stressful!) week leading up to Christmas and of course a very merry Christmas this weekend!

My playbill from "Wicked"

My finished sugar cookies!

Getting fancy with some gingerbread cupcakes

20 days until Christmas!

Hi everyone!

This week was a pretty busy one.  I worked on Monday night and then had an interview at Riley in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at 10am!  First I shadowed one of the nurses on the unit for an hour to get a feel for how everything runs and then I interviewed with the manager for about 45 minutes.  The whole time I just knew that it was going well.  The manager said that she would like to bring me back soon for a peer interview with some of the other nurses on the floor!  The interview is not scheduled yet but it should be sometime within the next couple of weeks.  Please continue to pray that the next one goes as well as the first!

After my interview I decided to drive to my parents' house so that my mom and I could go Christmas shopping.  I pretty much had everything bought for Christmas but Matt's family does a gift exchange every year and so we had two more people added to the list to buy for, so in lieu of sleeping I headed to the mall.  Thankfully I accomplished my mission and was able to go home and sleep!

Matt has been very busy this week preparing for an exam tomorrow (Monday).  Good luck, Matt!  The end of the semester is in sight!

Matt has been working on building up his saltwater aquarium and unfortunately one fish brought some sort of parasite to the rest of the tank.  We are now done to one lonely puffer fish, some snails, and some crabs.  He has also been trying to build up the coral in the tank and that is looking really good!  Hopefully with a few water treatments he will be able to put fish in there again soon.

I had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off this week which was really nice!  I spent Friday preparing the house for guests to come for dinner on Saturday.

Grandma and Grandpa Ward stopped by my parents' house for a few days on their way home from Grandpa's Army reunion in Missouri.  We hosted them, Mom and Dad, and Eric for dinner on Saturday evening.  I tried a new meatloaf recipe and a maple-pumpkin cheesecake recipe.  Both turned out pretty well!  I added some homemade mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, and dinner rolls.  It was nice to see everyone and to show Grandma and Grandpa our house since they had never seen it before.

After everyone left on Sunday and we were just kind of settling down after a busy day, Mom called and asked if it was okay if Dad and Eric come back.  I was going to inherit Dad's old treadmill and they wanted to bring it by that night.  I said "sure!" and our back sunroom/bonus room now houses the treadmill!

This afternoon (Sunday), a co-worker's fiance and son stopped by to pick up our old couch.  We got a new one a few months ago and had just been storing the old one in the bonus room.  It is nice to have the extra space in that room for the treadmill!

Later, I went up to Westfield to watch the Colts game with my friend Katlin.  Katlin and I are friends from high school and we both graduated from nursing school at Purdue.  We went to a local bar/grill (Fox and Hound) to watch the game and get dinner.  We had a good time, even though the Colts lost in over time to the Cowboys.

I think that is it for now!  We hope you have a great week!

Stacey, Matt, and Thor

My new treadmill!

Grandma brought me some Christmas housewarming gifts!