Aquarium Remodel

Also during our time off, Kevin remodeled his fish tank. He found some plastic plants at Hobby Lobby for a really cheap price, so he added those as hiding places for baby fish. He also rearranged to rocks to create more hiding spots for all of the fish. He also caught all of the babies that were still in the lower tank and moved them up to the main tank. Now we have lots of the same fish that look exactly alike. We are planning to sell them at some point, but for right now, our tank is very full.

Decorating

Kevin and I both had time off the past weekend. One of my goals for the weekend was to decorate the walls with the artwork and sayings we received from our wedding or elsewhere. While we still don't have any personal pictures (other than those we had printed for the wedding and a family photo for my family), our house seems homier. Below are pictures of the new decorations at our house, as well as our new welcome mat.

Top left and center: These are in our office. Kevin already owned these pictures; Top Right: Master Bedroom; Center Left: My completed family blocks; Center: On the divider wall between the kitchen and living room;

Remainder: Living Room; the painting in the bottom center was done by Kevin's aunt from a photo he took near Aurora.

Our new welcome mat at our garage door.

Super Bowl Party

This past Sunday, our friends Kate and Alex Storms invited us to a Super Bowl Party at their house. While I had no feelings in either direction for either team, I wasn't emotionally involved in the game, but it was a fun time spent with friends and with yummy food. I remembered how much I truly love guacamole and 7 layer dip. So scrumptious. Kevin's teriyaki was also yummy, although we somehow turned our beef teriyaki into jerky by putting it in the crock pot while we were at church (we had already cooked it, we were just keeping it warm. There were some good commercials, as well as good plays in the actual game. It was good to hang out with friends and get to know them better.

Storage Room

Kevin and his dad have finished the storage room. These are pictures of some of the shelves they built. The wall opposite of these shelves will have a shelving unit as well, but it isn't as fun to take pictures of empty shelves. It is nice to know that in the event of a disaster, we do have plenty of water, cereal, fruit, and hamburger helper.

Sleep

Sleep and I have issues. I like it a lot. A little bit too much in fact.

I can trace the root of my problem back to the summer between my senior year and my "super" senior year of college. I got my first nursing job that summer and I work the 2-10 pm shift a lot. I often got home after 11 pm, so I was not very motivated to get up before 8 am or even later. It became worse the summer I worked night shifts. This habit has continued, even though I now work 6 am – 6 pm, except now I justify sleeping in because I worked hard the day before. I was doing better before Kevin and I were married, but then Kevin became my excuse. He now works the swing shift, so he has the same excuse I did four years ago for not getting out of bed.

After getting up at 9:30 and talking myself out of working out a few too many times, I have decided that this is an area I need to focus on. I firmly believe that we are much more productive if we go to bed and get up earlier. Plus, I don't need 9 + hours of sleep, and it can't be healthy that I get up at 5 on days I work and 9 on days I don't. While I am not ready to commit to getting up at 5 everyday, I don't think that a four hour difference is that healthy.

To help me achieve this goal for reals this time, I have incorporated it into my New Year's Resolutions, where I am accountable for reporting each day. My ultimate goal is to get up at 6:30 on my days off, but I plan to get to that point gradually. Right now my goal is to get up at 8 seven times. After I achieve this mini-goal, I get a song from i-tunes and I will start working on getting up at 7:55. I have decided that bribery might be the best option because then I have a reward that I am working towards. Plus, it will mostly be i-tunes songs with an occasional book added in, so it shouldn't break the bank.

Hopefully this time I will conquer this problem for good because not only will it make going to bed and getting up for work easier, as well as increasing productivity, but it will help me when I become a mom. Apparently babies don't sleep in, so if I am already in the habit, hopefully it will decrease my annoyance at getting up to take care of a baby or child in the early morning hours.