Random Facts

I ignored Starla's tag few months ago so I better not do it this time:) So here are six random facts about me.

1.I love shopping with gift cards. I am all about saving money, but I spend my gift cards so quickly. Some of our friends have gift cards from their weddings few years later. Mine were gone within a month from our wedding. So I used to say that I don't like shopping but it's not true. I just hate spending my money. 

2. I used to have a fear of ordering at restaurants because of all the follow-up questions that come with ordering. This obviously goes back to the time when I didn't speak English completely fluently.  So my friends would order for me and though I have gotten over this "fear", Troy still likes to order for me.

3. I hate doing dishes. I don't mind cooking, cleaning or doing the laundry but doing dishes after dinner just annoys me. 

4. Before Troy and I got married, I only knew how to cook one meal. When we were dating, he used to cook for me all the time. So Troy was pretty worried about how our meal situation would be after we got married.  

5. One of my summer jobs during college was (Do you like I talk as if I have graduated:)) working at a cheese factory. To make the story even better, I worked the night shift and I cleaned the cheese machines with pressure hoses. I wore rubber boots, overalls and gloves and I was still always soaking  wet and found cheese in weird places when I got home. 

6. I was 5 feet 1 inch when I was in fifth grade so I have only grown about 3 inches since then. I went from one of the tallest girls to an average size. It must have been those years of gymnastics...

I tag Emmy,Camille and Hottie and I won't be offended if you ignore the tag:) 

Making My Vote Count

No I am not talking about the upcoming presidential race though it would be interesting to find out what people are thinking about the different campaigns and platforms. Since I cannot vote for the president of the United States, I wanted to make my vote count on So You Think You Can Dance. Troy and I have watched it since the beginning of the season and tonight is the first night that I am actually calling the toll-free number and casting my vote. Let's hope it will be worth of all this dialing:0

Lazy and Productive Saturday

I know lazy and productive are contradictory to each other. However, that is exactly how I would describe how yesterday was. We slept in, played Play Station 3(Troy) and read books (Eevi) in the morning. We also finished painting our guest bathroom and cleaned the house. I even took a two-hour nap and in the evening went for a 3.5 mile run. I have really missed running this summer and it felt wonderful to run again. Troy biked next to me to make sure that I was safe:) I did watch an Iron Girl race on TV and wished that I knew how to swim well so I could go and do one of these races. 

So we decided to paint our guest bathroom with dark red color. We still need to do some touch ups with the ceiling and corners but I love the way it looks. Of course, now we have to buy new shower curtain and bathroom rugs:) Gotta love the cost of decorating.

I also thought that I would share an amusing conversation that I had with a patient's spouse. 

Spouse: "Do you have an accent?"

I: "yes, I'm from Finland(I get this question quite a bit)."

Spouse: "I thought it must be either an accent or hearing impairment."

I: "Yeah, it's an accent"

I am not thrilled when people point out my accent but I am very used to it; however, I would have never thought that it sounded like I had a hearing impairment. Some people just surprise you with comments that should never be said out loud.

P.S few people have requested for me to share some of the books that I'm reading so I will do that in few days

 

I like my job but I love my off-days

I feel blessed to have a job that on most days makes me feel happy and satisfied. The perk of being a nurse(or working with a nurse for the summer) is that you only work three days a week. Obviously our shifts are 12 hours and you are exhausted by the time you get home, but you have four days off. I have been enjoying my off-days so much since I discovered that I can reserve books online on the library website. Yes, I am so nerdy. I reserved 11 books at one time and happily started going through them. So far I have read almost four of them in the last week. 

I have also gone to the high school pool and Troy has joined me for swim workouts. Today I swam 800 meters and he did 500 meters. It's lot more fun and less embarrassing to have someone there with me. I always feel like I'm trying to escape the Arizona summers and hide inside my house with A/C on and it feels great to actually enjoy the heat while swimming.

I also met up with one of my nursing school friends at the Reid Park Zoo. She was babysitting so I tagged along for some animal watching.  We got there around 9 am and I was shocked to see how many moms/grandmas and few dads were there that early with their kids.  It must be the place to be!

Elephants used to be my favorite animal, but I'm thinking that Giraffes are ever cooler. I haven't seen a live one for few years and I had forgotten how beautiful they are. Two of the giraffes were doing some hugging and "dancing" with their necks. They have some flexible necks. 

Something Little Different

About a month ago, I went to ophthalmologist because my far vision seemed very blurry. I was thinking that the doctor will tell me to wear glasses while I'm driving or in class. Surprisingly enough, I have astigmatism and I will be wearing glasses all the time. So finally after four weeks of waiting, my glasses arrived this morning and I have been trying to get used to them all day. I keep thinking they are sunglasses and try to put them on top of my head when I do things. Now I just have to figure out if I should do something different with my make-up when wearing glasses? So all ladies with glasses, give me some tips:)

So far I'm liking them. I just hope I won't get tired of them too quickly. At least I can get new glasses every year:)

This picture is really not the best because after our swim workout, I decided to go with the t-shirt and no make-up look for the rest of the day. 

"LIttle" sister's Visit

Since I have been out of "home" for more than five years now, I tend to think of my youngest sister as a little girl when in reality she has grown into a beautiful young woman. Aino and her friend Sonja came to visit us for few days and we tried not to be too boring for these 16 year olds.  As you can see, Aino likes tanning so we tried to take advantage of the Tucson weather to improve her tan. Of course, it happens to be the monsoon season and we saw more rain than sun that week.  We shopped, ate great food and saw "Made of Honor". It ended up being a pretty cute comedy. However, it did have some unnecessary inappropriate comments and humor, which seems to be the case with almost all the new movies. 

Aino and Troy making some Chicken Enchaladas for dinner
Girls excited about eating brownies while watching So You Think You Can Dance.

Aino's comments from her visit were "Troy, I didn't know you were so stylish" and while talking to dad on the phone, she encouraged dad to follow Troy's example with dressing up. She also told us that our kids would be so lucky since we cook such good food. We loved having her here for few days and were reminded again of how nice it would be to be closer to my family.

I'm a Land Mammal

I decided to try swimming as a workout so I bravely went to the local public pool by myself and jumped into the water. I went during the "adult lap hours" so there were only few other people. which didn't make me feel any better. I happened to be the only girl among the middle age men who were getting their workout in. Also I think my bathing suit with Zebra print took away any attempt to look like a serious swimmer, but I sure love that bathing suit. Thanks Janae:)

I find it funny that I can run 400 m(1/4 mile), which is one lap around the track, in one minute while it took me at least 10 minutes to swim 400 meters. I just do the breast stroke because I have not figured out my breathing rhythm for freestyle. 

I will enjoy my swimming workouts; however, I won't be trying to switch from running races to swimming races anytime soon.