Finland..the land of saunas

So I am writing this blogpost from the great country of Finland! I have been here for almost 2 weeks on holiday visiting some friends. It is the second notch on my Scandanavian belt ;) It is incredibly different from Iceland, but yet still has many typical Scandanavian qualities. The first difference from Iceland is the TREES! Millions of trees everywhere... flat lands.. lakes and more trees. As my Finnish friend Kati put it, "Finland is not a flashy place." No, it certainly is not, but what it lacks in landscape it makes up for in culture. I find that any country you visit is always better with a local. So I am actually staying in north Finland in a town called Oulu. I have certainly has my fair share of culture through food! Potatoes, moose, reindeer, bread and cheese! yumm! Oh and lets not forget the required 78 cups of coffee and pastries. I've never been so wired in my life. Some truths about Finland I have come to realize...Fins are not friendly... not to outsiders, but to everyone. Perfect example: today as I was helping my friend move out of her summer appartment and our hands were incredibly full a fellow Finn (who didn't reply when we said hello) rode the elevator down with us, walked out before we did, opened the door and let it slam in our faces... this is typical. As my other Finnish friend Emilia stated, Fins just want to stay to themselves, they do not like to talk to people because they do not want anyone to know anything about them. Well, gee golly! I sum it up to cultural differences. Kati also took me north to the artic circle, and their summer house bwhere I got to enjoy a traditional smoke sauna. I stripped down to my birthday suit in the middle of the wilderness and stepped into a charcoal pit and beat myself with a birch tree branch! Sounds like fun ey? Seriously though, One of Finlands finest jewels are the saunas.given the chance to visit one should definetly take this up, as long as you are fine with being stark naked with a bunch of random people that is ;) Overall though, I have enjoyed my time here and my time with friends. I fly home on thursday and I am ready! I never realized how much I could miss the Rockies! I need wide open spaces!

On other news I got a 4.0 for the summer semester..go me! Three more classes and then I graduate! ::happy dance:: I start up Monday, along with a 40 hr work week..boo and then my husband is jetting off to Denmark for work..double boo! But I have the arrival of my inlaws the first week of September to look forward to =)  Well as they say in finalnd heihei!

Midsummer Night's Dream

Here it is midsummer and my lack of blogging means that it has been a pretty rad summer! Only one minor glitch to set us back from full throttle, but looks like we may be back on track to living our first summer in Colorado up to the fullest! Since my last blog, we have done some cool Colorado trips, like a weekend in Steamboat aka my future home, a fantastic stay with friends in Beaver Creek, a day at the "beach" Boulder reservoir, and many BBQs and get togethers. We also had a trip back to Florida, which was too short but much needed. Nice to see all my friends again and my dad through an epic 4th of July party/family reunion. Still have a few months of summer left, and a rodeo, scandanavia trip, and some long pool days to look forward to! Life is certainly much better than I expected it to be here in Colorado.. I have no complaints! Hope to blog more frequently, but at the same time.. hope I stay just as busy!

The summer kick off

Well, I suppose you could say summer is about to kick off, but seeing how it was 38 degrees today, makes it hard to believe! I have had a couple weeks off in between semesters. My friend Debbie has been visiting with us from Florida, been nice to see a familiar face. We went 90 miles an hour while she has been here! Hiking, sight seeing, a baseball game, some downtown Denver time, and just having a good time. She leaves tomorrow..too soon. So DH and mines summer schedule is pretty full. I actually start class again tomorrow, but am only taking two, albeit accelerated, classes. DH is working on his thesis this summer. He leaves for California in a couple weeks for a business trip and then we will both go home to Florida in July. I can't tell you how excited I am! It will have been 7 months since I have seen my family and I am ready for some ocean time :) I also have a VERY exciting trip planned in August.... I am going to FINLAND!!! This will be my first trip, and I am going to Oulu, which is in the north. I am meeting some of my Finnish friends there, and staying for almost 2 weeks. DH has volunteered to stay back and take care of the animals.... He is the best husband :) ohhh.... I also forgot to mention something extremely important...our one year anniversary! Not that we have anything special planned other than maybe a relaxing weekend, but I cannot believe it is coming up on one year! Other plans for the summer is a weekend with our Icelandic friends in their mountain cabin for Sautjándi Júni, or Iceland's independence day, and ending the summer with Kings of Leon and Alison Krause concerts! Wow, we are going to be exhausted! Love it all though.... Means I am living. Looking forward to seeing everyone in July, and a reminder the Friday I am in town we are meeting at our typical restaurant for drinks and dinner!

Gleðelega Páska!

Also known as Happy Easter! Well at least I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday! We certainly did. We had our fabulous friends Bryan and Ana Marie come stay with us for a week. Although the weather could have been better ( I swear they brought the FL rain with them!) we still managed to have a grand time. It even snowed for them, how magical... Well for them at least, I am OVER IT! Somebody please inform Colorado that it is spring time :) for Easter day I cooked a traditional English supper in honour of my grandmother and of course the royal wedding! I made roast beef, Yorkshire pudding with potatoes, carrots and gravy. Dessert included butterfly cupcakes, mincemeat tarts, scones and lemon bars. I ran out of time or I would have made hot cross buns on good Friday. My grandmother would have been proud! All in all there were 8 of us. My German friend and her husband, the two Icelanders, husband and myself and our two Florida friends ( Columbian and Italian) so we certainly had an international Easter! Sóley brought me my first ever Nóa súkkulaði egg, which is a chocolate egg filled with candy and a fortune ( in Icelandic) and I was beyond excited for that! We stayed up to the wee hours playing games and rocking out guitar hero style! For my first ever holiday away from family, I can say it was fantastic, as I am quickly learning friends make a fine family :D
As for some day to day updates, I finished all my final exams :: does happy dance:: and passed my classes! Two weeks off until I start my next two classes, so I am going to work my bootay off and make some dough. My good friend Debbie will be here in 2 weeks and I'm pretty stoked to see her pretty face! I miss my friends terribly and hope they all come visit soon.
I will post some pictures soon from Easter and the time spent with my friends which they were here, but now I am going to watch the Royal wedding, as I have recorded it and have been waiting patiently and also avoiding all media at work!

In the home stretch!

So I just wrote a really long post then accidentally deleted it.. grrr.

Summary: Home stretch of this semester, 2 finals one project (group project.. they are slackers, I am doing all the work.. some things never change from the 3rd grade)

Horses be here first week of May, happy girl... broke girl.

Met the other 3 Icelanders residing here in Boulder..lol.... fantastic people.. so much fun to hang out with!

skii season over.. sad
spring is here..happy

Fun trips planned for the summer, including one trip home, possible grand canyon, ? Finland in august, and summer completion with a brewery tour. Epic.

DNP, CRNA, APN ???

hmm, 20 days.. guess it's been a minute since I blogged last ;) April is fast approaching, and so comes the end of my spring semester. As excited as I am to finish I am also freaked! I have 2 APA papers to write, a final project/exam and 2 more final exams. The worst part is the class that I am struggling with the most (Nursing Research), is the one that I have the most due in.. boo hiss! I'm telling you this is a tough class. Null hypothesis Type I & II errors blah blah blah, sucks. Next semester I am taking Health care Management and Economics and Intro to Critical Care Nursing. MORE FUN!! haha.. well at least the CC nursing will help me further my career and hopefully be interesting. Speaking of my career, I am finishing up orientating in the PACU & Day Surgery pre-op. Things are going good, and the patient care really isn't an issue for me, but the charting and paperwork sucks! For my friends who are still using Cerner.. be happy.. very very happy! Meditech royally sucks monkey balls. Otherwise everyone is pretty cool, except for one bitch ass nurse, who will remain nameless. Maybe I am threatening being mid 20's and having more critical care experience than her? Who knows, maybe she is just a bitch.. but she sure does treat me like shit.. but yet I remain pleasant to her. I refuse to succumb to the crotchety nurse stigma like her. And you know what else? I'll probably be her boss one day...hahaha! So it's not a secret that I am going back to school to further my nursing career, but the question still remains what do I want to do when I grow up?! My Masters is certainly in my near future, I had briefly thought about CRNA (nurse anesthesia) school, then switched to Nurse Practitioner, and now I think I am back to CRNA. There are some tough decisions to make though. One being the fact that I have no time to waste. By 2015 all advanced practice nurses will be required to have a Doctorate, but if I can get done before then, I will be grandfathered in. That means I have to finish up this degree, take my GREs, apply and be accepted and finish all before 2015. Pretty big task. Did I mention that in order to be accepted to anesthesia school you must quit your job? Yep, it's that grueling. So then here is the kicker. No life. It sure feels like I have been in school for my whole life anyway. That is what happens when you have to work full time and school part time, it takes twice as long. So subjecting myself to another 2-3 years of this is pretty exhausting. I think about what about having kids, keeping my horses, building a house?! I'm trekking towards my 30's  and feel like I may miss out on a lot, but then again I also feel it would probably be worth it. Anyways I have a lot to think about, but I am glad I am getting some OR type experience to add to my critical care =)

 Some things I have to look forward to:
1.friends coming in town in April and May!
2.spring semester to be over
3.having a real paycheck!
4.going home in July
5.bringing my horses to Colorado


That's it for now! Maybe I won't wait 20 days to post again!

Colorado life

Colorado life is pretty darn swell! As you can probably tell from my lack of blogging DH and I have been pretty busy lately. I FINALLY got a job! Go me! And I have been working Monday thru Friday lately for training purposes. It's certainly safe to say I am not a m-f kinda girl. I loathe getting up early every single day.. Ask my husband, I'm a bear. The job is going well so far, tough learning a new charting system, docs and the whole surgical thing is new to me. With time though I'll get it down. School is getting pretty intense too as it's past the halfway mark in the semester. Technically I am on spring break, although it's not much break working 5 days a week plus 2 hours of homework each night! It's the only way I can stay ahead though... And I like to goof off on the weekends :p speaking of weekends..they are a BLAST here in CO! We go hiking, skiing, sightseeing and not to mention all the fabulous things to do in Denver! Last weekend we went hiking in Boulder, went to the Denver symphony and then I met a couple friends on Sunday to go skiing :) left DH at home to study for his test, he was uber jealous! I have made a few friends here and things are going great! I'm keeping myself super busy and still manage to have a couple gfs to grab a drink or a yoga session with :) don't get me wrong... I REALLY miss home and the salty air, and my horses! But we are making the best of it and enjoying all that CO has to offer us. Today my mom sent me a where's George dollar and that made my day. Miss my family and it's only been 2 months, hope they come visit soon. On the plus side I have some great friends coming for a visit very soon and I can't wait to see their faces!!!

Happy VD Day.... VALENTINES DAY.. :P

Hello friends!

So learning from past experiences, DH is not the best at Valentines gift giver... BUT to give him credit, this IS a new concept for him. God Bless the Hallmark company for making up this ridiculously over the top holiday that only women benefit from! Anyway, we decided this year there would be no gifts. I feel more satisfaction is derived from experiences rather than material possessions.  We decided that for the weekend, because V-day is on a Monday, we would both plan something we thought would be fun to do, and for those of you who know us well, the differences in what we planned is not only comical, but typical of us. I guess DH decided he needed to make up for past V-days because he planned an amazing overnight stay at a mountain lodge at the breathtaking Devils Thumb Ranch, which included a posh dinner at the Ranch's restaurant, and a day of Cross Country skiing! This was my first ever experience skiing, I actually never REALLY saw snow until 2009, during a trip to Iceland, so needless to say it was an experience! We chose Classic Style skiing, which is what DH told me would be easier. Easier or not I still fell about 4 times, once because I was going down a hill WAY too fast, once when I was going up a hill, and the other times my feet just got all tangled up! I believe it is safe to say that I was not born on skis like my husband, but by the end of the 2.5 hours I actually had the hang of it and was gliding and wanting more hills! We may go again next weekend, and then the following my Tessa will be here and we are going to Breckenridge for the weekend for downhill skiing! There is only so many ski weekends left before the snow starts melting so we want to do as much as we can. XC skiing is certainly more cost efficient, so we will probably be doing more of that, plus in DHs past life he was/is an awesome XC skier, even going to the European Olympics ;)

After a fun filled couple days of skiing and hot tubbing we headed to Denver for my part of the weekend... yep a genuine Monster Truck Rally! Ha Ha .... I say you can take the girl out of Sula, but you can't take the Sula out of the girl! We had fun routing on the Grave Digger and DH got to experience America at it's finest ::sarcasm::!!! Hey, I'm just trying to fulfill his quest to be the first Icelandic cowboy!

The weather was very warm today, reaching 63F, which was a nice change from the -22F we had the other week. The snow melted away fast, leaving a muddy slushy mess that we let Giselle play in at the dog park, needless to say she went straight to the bath after she was done playing! Speaking of dogs, Colorado has got to be the friendliest dog state ever! It is great, we can bring her anywhere with us, and there is no leash laws if your dog has a voice and sight tag (which she does) to prove that it listens. All the dogs are so friendly, and nobody wants to eat each other alive. I was nervous bringing her hiking the first time because I thought all these huge dogs would go after her because she is so small. Not the case at all! The other dogs are so happy and well socialized they do nothing more than maybe a quick sniff and then on their way! All in all I have had a great last few weeks and I am really starting to feel settled. It's a nice feeling! I'll attach a few pictures from this weekend!

I'm ready for some football!

Superbowl weekend has arrived! The Mecca of football season and a good reason to party! The hubby and I will be having our own party/ study weekend, but it will still include Coors beer ( of course!) buffalo chicken dip, meatballs, BBQ ribs and bread dip... Ya know all that yummy artery clogging crap! So things have gotten better here in Colorado. I'm finally over what I am convinced was the flu, have made a couple friends and most importantly.... I got a job! Aaaaannnddd my pay is waayyyyy better than what I was making in Florida! So that other hospital I interviewed for can kiss it, because this one hired me on the spot! So I will be starting in the next couple weeks. I am excited because I'll get to meet some more people and have some stuff to do, to get me out of the house... But most importantly, I'll have some income so I can get my horses shipped to colorado. I miss their fuzzy noses! Giselle absolutely loves it here, she enjoys our hikes.. But she's not too keen on the snow... Speaking of snow, as beautiful as it is, and trust me it is, it's also cold and wet and people slide all over the road, way worse than the Florida monsoons I am used to. Last week it was high of -9F! I don't think I had even ever felt weather that cold before. When you took a deep breath outside your nostrils would literally freeze! So thanks to all my Florida friends for reminding me every time they go to the beach or pool... I'll remember that when you are drenched in sweat come August.... It has been snowing everyday here, but the good news is it doesn't last all day and melts away within a few days. Today started off fairly warm* warm being ~42F but now its cold and flurries. I remember being in Iceland and someone telling me " Don't like the weather? Wait 5 minutes!" it's kind off like that here too.

It is breathtaking waking up to the Rockies everyday here, I still have not gotten used to that and I hope I never do! I look forward to seeing some friends for a visit and my future trips back home when I starting missing the sea air! Life is good.

Mile high city is high

You might be wondering about the title of this blog. Well, maybe not Denver specifically, but Boulder... My oh my there is certainly some granola crunching hippies! Actually, after walking out on my balcony for some "fresh air" and got a whiff of something else! And I thought Florida was bad! Anyway besides that little bit of info week one went off without a hitch. I wish it was more exciting, but really it just consisted of me unpacking, hacking up a lung, more unpacking, sofa shopping, hacking up another lung, getting the run around from a hospital that won't return my calls and MORE unpacking! No wonder why I am so exausted! The good news is we are 90% unpacked. Just have some final organizing and cleaning to do. I haven't ventured out too much because I have been so sick... Pretty miserable actually, but I think I may be starting to turn the corner towards health again! My three classes have kept me quite busy, but being that they are all online, that keeps me in the house too. It will be worth it when I am done though! I did make a friend (yippee!) and she took me out shopping and then DH and I met her and her DH for dinner at a Moroccan restaurant. What a neat experience that was! When you enter they ask you to remove your shoes and then they sit you at these low lying tables where you sit on pillows. They wash your hands with rose water and then bring out the five course meal that you share and eat with your fingers! It's a very messy but very fun experience! It's definitely on my to do list for friends that come into town. I hear on the weekend they have belly dancers and the waiters to tricks and stuff. As for the job hunt, I am being very impatient and I know I am not much good to anyone unless I rest up and get better, but I want a job! I like having money to spend, I like having something to do and be needed. But most of all I want a job so I can afford to have my horses here with me! I miss then so much. I am certainly not a homebody. Other news is I found a local horse club and I am going to go to the annual meeting next month! It will be nice to be involved and meet some other horsey people. Annnnnnd last but not least, I had my first ever driving in the snow experience! Wow. Scary! Not so much the snow but ice. My windshield was iced up to the point I only had one small section to see out of, despite my defroster being on full blast. DH was in class so I could not get a hold of him so I text our native Coloradan friend Clay, about what to do. He responds by saying "Easy, reach your hand out the window grab your windshield wiper and snap it so the ice falls off!" uhhh... Driving down the highway? I think not! Needless to say I cut my trip short and headed home. I'm sure I will get better with time. Well that's it for now, gonna go cook my honey some dinner :)

19 hrs on the road

19 hours. That's exactly how long we were in this truck yesterday. Me, my husband, dog, cat.yep.

Actually, aside from this bronchitis crud I got going on.... It wasn't entirely bad. We're even still on speaking terms! Well.. That's probably because this diesel truck is so loud we can neither hear nor speak without screaming across the cab! Haha seriously though, DH has been awesome, and we have been a good team along the way. we made it all the way to gainesville, Texas before stopping for the night, so I think that was pretty good timing. Currently we are in Oklahoma were the fog is thick and visibility is bad, hopefully it wont put us off timing too bad. Gps says we will be "home" at 1640, but due to mountain time zone we should arrive at 1540. This is good :) the animals have been good, Muzzy especially .. Way better than I thought he would be. They pretty much sleep most of the time, and get stir crazy toward the 10-11th hour. Poor Giselle wanted to play when I took her for a quick walk at a stop. Had to inform her we a) had no time and b) I swear I heard dueling banjos. Louisiana was an experience. It was actually pretty cool seeing all te swamp on the "bayou" and hearing the Cajun accent. We stopped at one gas station just south of Shreveport, LA ( and those of you who know me well know I was excited about Shreveport due to my obsession with Charlene Harris series aka true blood) anyway; this gas station was called "3Js Four Way". Yes. I feel no need to elaborate on that name. As DH was filling the truck up me and the kids were doing some people watching. Well, that was amusing enough but the REAL fun was when I ventured inside ;) Listen now, I am not one to judge.. Those of you who know me know where I grew up. For Gods sake there was a "hitching" post at our local gas station, so you can tie up yur horse when you want to go in for a beer! So that being said, this place put the Sula mall to shame. This was the only place I have ever been that you can fill up your car, buy some chicken gizzards to go, pick up some fishing worms, a cheap bottle of wine, and oh what's that? You need a new tree hunting stand? Ah, hell, they got those too! Our friend Clay mentioned another stop in LA similar to this place, but it also has a casino inside! SCORE! We went through Texas and swear we spotted Chuck Norris, but I heard the rumor, we don't "see" Chuck Norris he sees us, and If he does let you see him... Be careful, he is the only one who can round house kick you in the back of the face... True story.

Oh job status: called the people who interviewed me for a follow up.. They have another person to interview next week, hopefully will know after that. I also got another call from an agent about a job in ICU in boulder. She will email me the details. I may have to take it, but obviously I would rather have a permanent position than contract. But I'll do what I have to! Stay tuned for more blogs!

T minus 2 days... And I've got the crud!

Really?! MUST I get sick 2 days before we embark on this huge journey?! I guess I should have expected it considering how much stress I have been under the last few weeks. But I'm still gonna bitch about it! Actually knowing that I am leaving in 2 days, I got my butt into the dr today, for the official diagnosis of sinusitis and bronchitis, fun. Hopefully that nice shot of rocephin into my arse will start kicking in! My husband won't let me get out of bed... Normally a day lounging in bed watching movies would sound appealing, but really it's quite boring. We have also got SO much to do, it's driving me crazy sitting here! I tried sneaking out to pack some and got griped at and sent back to my room, lol. I hate being inconvenienced with illness, I have no time for this! Good news for Debbie though, looks like she will be inheriting by last 3 yoga passes ;) lucky girl! So I did finally get a phone interview for a job... Will see how that pans out. Will keep my fingers crossed, something good is waiting out ere for me I just know it! I also started classes this week.. I'm taking 3 this semester, and moving, and hopefully starting a new job, I must be crazy or something! Better to be busy though right? They look like they might be tough ones too, lots of apa papers to write, joy!

As for our move, the packing is 95% done, picking up the Penske truck tomorrow and then my brother is going to come by after work and help us load it. I have 9 hrs worth of Dexter episodes, and a bunch of new music on my iPad. I also bought myself some cross word puzzles, a few magazines, and a butt load of homework. I should be good. Hubby and I are going to change out driving every gas tank or so, and we have changed our route due to the big snow storm coming through the west. Looks like we will be headed to Texas and then up to Colorado. Flatter land=less snow, we hope. And one other challenge we will face is the lack of room in the truck cabin... Hmm yeah definitely thought it was bigger. Guess all 4 of us, plus the dog kennel and litter box will jam in! We will, however, be staying in a pet friendly hotel one night! Happy wife= happy husband! Be looking for blog posts along the way, and pictures once we get settled!

recap on 2010

Leaving Friday the 14 :) /:( hmm.. Still hasn't sunk in I guess?? Hubby and I have started the daunting process of packing...not fun! BUT on the bright side everyone should be required to pack at least once a year just to clean out and eliminate all the crap we own! Our lives would be so much simpler. Right now our house looks like WWIII blew up in it! My type A personality is screaming inside! Currently we are sitting on lawn chairs playing Red Dead Redemption on our PS3. This is what us (unemployed) and out of school folk do! Actually I am currently not complaining because it has been about 12 years since I have not had a job, at first it was strange, but it has been nice because I know it is only short term. Kinda like an extended vacation... Very extended... So hubs and I planned out our trip on google maps- 1 day and 6 hrs.. In good traffic! More like 2 days. We have a 26 ft Penske truck that we are going to switch back and forth driving. Hoping to either stop in St. Louis, MO or Nashville, TN.Missouri if we make good time, Tennessee if we get slowed down. Hoping to not hit too much bad weater aka snow on the way. LUCKY US we get to drive all the way through the ever exciting Georgia, cross Tennessee, nip off Missouri, and then begin the long decent into tornado valley aka KANSAS! God help me to stay sane and not kill my husband, oh and please help the pigmies in new guinea! DH job is to download LOTS of music and movies to my iPad. Did I mention we are driving with a dog and cat too? Haha well, I guess it's an adventure to say the least! Be looking for regular blog updates along the way to keep myself entertained!

So as for our day to day life, we spent new years with great friends, eating, drinking, making Finnish pancakes, and lighting fireworks! So much fun :) We celebrated ny husbands 28th birthday with a low key dinner with friends. I got him the Avatar blue ray and he treated
himself to a new video game. Our baker friend Beth ( check her blog out bakedbybeth.blogspot.com )made a fantastic raspberry cake for DH and we all had a big bowl of white bean chili, perfect for the cold evening! I can surely say 2010 was one of the, if not, the best years ever! I got to marry the love of my life, had friendships that grew even stronger, put some miles in e saddle, and grew in my career. Here's to hoping 2011 can blow away 2010!