Happy birthday to yoooouuuuuuuuu

I just want to wish my dad, his twin brother, and my father in law happy birthday! All born on December 30! Sorry about your luck! Hahaha xoxoxox

Decisions decisions...

The holidays are almost over, and boy I am ready! Don't get me wrong I love Christmas as much as anyone else, but when the chaos is done, so am I. I'm over the eating, over the stress, over the alcohol and over my house being a mess! I packed up the Christmas tree and lights today and all that's left is a pile of tree needles to be picked up. The only thing I am not excited about the holidays being over is that means we are closer to leaving our wonderful families and friends ::sad face:: BUT a couple have already started planning their trips out to see us ::happy face::!! I get to see Tessa and Erik at the end of February and Clay and a few of his friends are gonna meet us to go skiing in Vail. All in all I had a great Christmas! Hubs made my parents and I a lovely traditional Icelandic dinner on Christmas eve. Although I have to admit the hangikjöt aka smoked lamb, was not my most favorite Icelandic dishes. I think it's the smoked flavor, because I'm not crazy abut smoked salmon either. After dinner mom, dad, hubs and I all stayed up very late playing cards, where my mom whooped up on us bug time, and dad swore I cheated( I did not!) It was a grand time, we don't do that stuff often enough. We spent Christmas at my parents and ate yummy beef tenderloin, smoked by my dad, BBQ king! With English Yorkshire pudding, just like grandma used to make :) We watched 'The Christmas Story' and everyone played with their new toys! Santa was AWESOME to me this year and I got a pretty rad gift! So I passed on my laptop to my mom who was super excited to get his first ever laptop, and she played with it all afternoon. We ended the day by going on a horseback ride. Can't get any better than that folks.

On some Colorado notes, we will start the dreaded packing this week. No clue where to start. We are going to have to change out our truck for a 4x4 in order to get around in the snow and mountains, and especially if I have to pull a horse trailer! Not that I have one...yet... But who knows what the future holds! I also got offered a job in CO by a travel agency. No, don't get too excited.. It's for a night position with crappy pay. Boo! I don't know if I should just take it to have a job, after all it is only a 13 week contract, or if I should hold out and see if something better comes along. I hate not knowing what could be right around the corner! I think what if I sign this contract, and then a better offer comes in, or a great full time position, and now I am in a 3 month contract and can't do anything about it. I think I am just going to pray on it tonite, and hopefully God will help me figure this one out. I need to put this is His hands because I am getting a little overwhelmed. The right fit is out there for me, we just have to find each other:)

For now, there's just New Years Eve to celebrate! Woohoo, fun times ahead:D

T minus 26 days

Wow, in just 26 days we will be on our way to Colorado to start our new adventure. I'll try my best to make this post as optimistic as possible, but I'm feeling a little down and gloomy about jobs right now. I talked to two recruiters today from two different companies. Both said there were still NO jobs for a RN in CO. Now, true I know there are jobs, just not for travelers. I'm not sure what to think, because one of the recruiters asked me if I was looking for a full time job, which, I didn't lie, I am, just would rather have a travel job first. So she then precedes to tell me that she knows nurses that have been trying to get jobs for months with no success. I don't know if she is just trying to scare me, so I  won't look elsewhere, or if it is true. I went into nursing because it is such a diverse field that is in such high demand, er well that's what I was told. But now since this whole world effing sucks for jobs, it seems to be way harder. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm a flipping critical care nurse!!! I am more trained than most nurses, and operate on a high level. They should be blowing up my phone to have me work for them. I have only been applying for jobs for a few weeks, so I'm not desperate yet, but damn cut a sister a break! Ask my husband, I am a worrier by nature, especially when it comes to money, and I have had a job consistently since I was 14, I don't know how to not work, nor do I want to know. Especially when we move to CO, if I don't have a job OR my horses, I'll just DIE! Okay I know I am being a bit dramatic, but UGH!

OKAY! That's all the complaining I will do for one post! Now to the good stuff! Hubs and I got back from CO Sunday, after spending a week there. Good news! We found our future home and put a deposit on it. It's a lovely  2b/2b condo with a great mountain view and lots of updates. It will be quite a change leaving our beautiful home with a yard to move into a condo on the 3rd floor. At first I had a major anxiety fest after we signed the lease, it made it so real! But after having some time to calm down I realized it is not the end of the world, and people move away from home everyday. It will take some adjusting, but we will survive. It's like every semester when I start classes I am SO overwhelmed and think "I'll never make it!" But you know what? I ALWAYS do! I'm thinking of this the same way; overwhelming in the beginning, but we WILL make it! I admire my brother and sister in law; they moved from Iceland to Germany with a small child! They didn't know anyone, didn't have jobs or even speak the language and you know what? They are doing just fine! So We can do this! =)
I spent most of the time in CO by myself as DH had to work during the week. You would have thought I would have been lonely, but actually I was quite content hanging alone. I walked all around downtown taking pictures, shopping and I even found a yoga studio that I went to every morning. So let me tell you downtown is a VERY eclectic place with lots of hard core yoga gurus. I went to one class that was totally out in outer space!  But the other classes I went to were better and I actually learned some great stuff to take back to FL with me. I also went hiking by myself, and had a good time although I'll admit I thought I may get eatin by a bear or mountain lion the whole time! EEK! We ended the week with a nice snow of a few inches, just enough to make it look like Christmas , and then we drove to Wyoming! We went to the capital, Cheyenne, which was literally a one horse town! We walked around, went to a museum, saw some buffalo and then headed to Ft Collins for what was advertised on Yelp as the best cinnamon buns in the state. They weren't lying!

Sunday evening after getting off the plane, I met a few of my gfs to go to Arabian nights and then to have some martinis, boy what fun we have! La Bamba ( Kati's car) nearly killed us ;) and Olga had to ride in the car seat, but we still had a blast! Man I am gonna miss those crazy girls! Last night we had our going away party which was Tacky Christmas sweater themed! I'll attach a picture. What goofs we are! We had some great food and spirits and fantastic people to share it with. Then a few of us stayed up until 3 am to watch the once in a lifetime lunar eclipse! I think they say it happens like once ever 456 years, so it REALLY was once in a lifetime! All in all a great December we are having. I'm not working, which I am still getting used to. I still feel like I need to go to bed early because I'll have to get up to work in the morning! Tomorrow I am having lunch with a couple of ladies I went to nursing school with, and then hopefully I can head out to the barn for some fresh air! If I don't get to blog again before Christmas, Merry Christmas everyone!

spider pig spider pig

::insert family guy reference::

So we had a great weekend. The hubs and I started Saturday out by going to my yoga studio's running club at 745am. I ran 2.5 miles, Arni ran 5 and then we finished off with 1.5 hour hot yoga. Great healthy way to start off our weekend! Guess we are preparing to be one of the granola folk out in CO! I do yoga almost every day that I have off, while Arni only does it occasionally with me as he loathes the heat ;) Well, yoga is good for the body and good for the soul, BUT there are some peculiar people who do yoga. So Arni always gets some new experience when he comes with me. For example: there is this one guy, maybe mid 20's who feels the need to yell "CHATURANGA!!" every time we do a chaturanga, he also wears prayer beads and drinks from a camel pack.... see peculiar. So Saturday we had a new experience that was not only annoying but mildly amusing. A woman, mid 40's, decided to take the "yoga breath" to an extreme. Just for some background, yoga is very much about the breath and controlling and warming it. The instructor encourages you to breath in and out through yours nose, and to warm your breath with the back of your throat. When done correctly, it produces  a soft breathy sigh. This is actually a difficult thing to do as in vinyasa yoga, you breath heavily because your heart rate is up. Well, anyway this woman we will call her "Huffy" was breathing in and out so incedibly loud that she sounded like a dragon breathing fire! My husband looked over at me in the mirror and gave me the "Are you kidding me!?" look and I all but lost it! The thing that kills me was she was the ONLY ONE who was breathing like that out of a room of 25 people! Seriously lady, don't you hear yourself?? I have been practicing yoga now for about 5 months thanks to my good friend Debbie, who took me to my first real class. I still have so far to go, but I find myself getting super excited when suddenly I can do a pose that I couldn't do before, even if I am doing it horribly! My first mile stone was the headstand. Not that I was ever lacking strength for this, but I had to get over the fear of falling. Once I let that notion go, I was successful! Since that defining moment I have tried more things I was scared to do. I held a crow for like 3 seconds, and got into a halfway bird of paradise on the right leg.. SUCCESS!! The point of this is that sometimes it takes mentally proving to yourself before you get there physically. Yoga has seriously changed my life, and I'm so thankful for the time I get to spend on my mat =)

As for the rest of the weekend we went to a bonfire Christmas party with my coworkers, drank to much, ate too much, had some good laughs, rode a four wheeler and electric triceratops, and lost Tessa in the woods! Hell of a party! On Sunday our sweet friend Beth had a Spiderman themed birthday party for her son Ben, who turned four. Beth is one talented lady, as you should have seen the amazing Spidey cake she made! Arni and I made the mistake overestimation of buying Ben a real life web thrower, equip with blue "web" aka silly string. First off let me say my poor Icelandic husband had not one clue what silly string was! Sheltered I tell ya! Anyway Ben thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, ESPECIALLY when he was shooting it all over Beth's ceilings.. oops! Sorry Beth! At least she thought it was funny, and Arni cleaned off her ceilings after Spiderman was all out of web. However there may or may not be a permanent blue stain on the ceiling >< 
We also made traditional Icelandic pancakes Sunday morning for our friends Ally, Joe and Joe's son Jacob. Jacob is I believe 5 or 6 years old. He has met me many times before, but usually plays shy and doesn't talk to me. Not the case this time! He was a little chatterbox! More proof that the way to a mans heart is through is stomach, or through pancakes more specifically! We just had a fantastic weekend overall! We have such amazing friends who we are truly going to miss dearly. Hoping  they will all come visit us to get their snow fix!

Oh, and this is my LAST week at work. Thursday and thats it!

Travel nursing

Well, that was fast! I applied for a travel nursing job yesterday and they already called me! Hope it all works our because the deal sounds pretty sweet. Pay about $12 more an hour than what I make now, moving stipend and living allowance! I told them Boulder/Denver area and I am seeing what they have to offer. Exciting stuff! I tell ya, if you have the means and not tied down, I don't know why everyone doesn't do travel nursing. They supply housing, pay excellent and you get to see the country! I'm really going to miss all the great Doctors and Nurses that I work with. After three years you really start to build some solid relationships and trust with these people. So as for our move, I'm particularly not looking forward to the packing.. arg. But I did clear out all unnecessary items and have been stealing loads of boxes from work. I've moved enough times already that I should be good at it, but it still stinks. I'm trying to steal some of my husbands optimism ;) I say he has an illness, it's called Chronic Optimism, I swear he must hear reggae music in his head all day long! It's not a bad disease to have ;) So today, I hear, it is cold in Florida. I wouldn't know because I have been in a building all day long, but I'm preparing to freeze my tush off, ya know practice. I swear with all the life changes I've had within the last 3 years a move should be cake! There is one thing to say about all this craziness, if Arni and I can make it through our first year of marriage with moving and job changes, we can make it through anything!

Oh and as promised some horse show pictures!