What I've Been Doing Instead of Blogging

Hi all!

It's been a while since we talked. And that's basically because for a bit I couldn't talk about what I really wanted to talk about and then I had zero motivation to blog and SO MUCH going on. The main reason that I haven't been around much is this:

I've been growing a tiny human :)  and that's taken up a lot of my energy and strangely also time, not the growing itself, but the planning and being tired and feeling UGH for the first three months. And reading about pregnancy and tiny humans and everything they need. Last Friday was my due date and now I'm impatiently waiting for the arrival of our little girl, so it might be some time before you hear from me again after this.

Other highlights over the last couple of months:

We went to the Maldives! Which was amazing and SO gorgeous and the boyfriend actually proposed there, which was totally romantic. We relaxed and drank all the mango juice and snorkeled with sea turtles and actually saw dolphins and Nemo and Dory and it was just a lovely time!

We got married! We wanted to get married before the baby's here, so we decided to have the ceremony with just family and my best friend and her boyfriend and we had a wonderful day! We're throwing a party to celebrate somewhere in the summer probably.

We bought a house :) (I know, it's crazy right?) We'd been talking about moving and buying a house instead of continuing to rent and the baby just moved it a little bit forward on the timeline. And we were really lucky to find the perfect house that we both fell in love with and we've already been living here for 2 months now. I wasn't able to contribute as much as I would have liked with the moving process, but we're mostly unpacked now and I have an amazing set of built in shelves in the attic (thanks to the previous owners and my lovely father-in-law who built me some more when I told him it wouldn't fit all my books) and I just love it. We had so much help from our friends and family and I feel really blessed to have them in our lives!

I finished my GP residency. The day my maternity leave started was also the last day of my residency, though officially I'll be done on July 1st, but it's all maternity leave and vacation up until then, to basically it's done. I was REALLY sad to leave the GP's office I was working at, because it's such an amazing place to work at and my colleagues are the best ever, but I do feel really proud that I'm done and I'll visit with the baby and hope that I'll get to work there every now and then.

I've also been reading, but not as much as I thought I would, especially since my maternity leave started. But I did buy a book seat so in theory I'll be able to read handsfree which'll come in handy when the baby gets here ;) Fingers crossed it won't take long now for her to get here!

I feel so out of touch with the blogopshere! Let me know what you've been up to!

Daisy Update (59)

So a LOT has happened since my last update, but not all of it's interesting ;)

At the moment, I'm recovering from my night shift week of DOOM, I worked 5 nights in a row and while that may not sound like much, it adds up to over 50 hours and now I have a really tired and am slowly adjusting to being awake during the day instead of at night. I'd flipped my rhythm around so well that I wasn't even all that tired yesterday morning when the day shift people came, which is not really a good sign. But the kitty has been cuddly and I have a soft blanket, so I think it'll be ok :)

We had another book club meeting, we went out for sushi, which is YUM and talked about anything and everything and scared other visitors of the restaurant again. Which is always fun :D I love these girls, and book club night is one of my favourite things each month! I love how we can share our love of reading and fangirl over things together and also rant about other things, even if we don't always agree on everything.

Last week I went our for lunch and shopping with two of my friends, who I hadn't seen in a while and it was lovely to catch up with them! One of them is having a tough time and I'd been checking in on her by phone, but it's not the same as seeing how she's doing in person. Also, these two are the best shopping buddies! One of them is the same size as me, which can be unfortunate if there's only one size left, but our body types are different enough that it's not really a problem and it was especially fun when she handed me one of the dresses she had tried and didn't really like on her and I bought it and then we did the same thing in reverse at the next store.

We had a bit of a scare Friday evening, the kitty runs around the backyard when the weather is nice, but we thought we'd kitty-proved it so she couldn't get out, which as worked so far. But then she was suddenly nowhere to be found and it turns out she'd escaped and was gallivanting about with some of the other kitties that live on our street near some houses they are building right behind ours. Which wouldn't have been such a problem, if only she came back when we called and tried to bribe her with treats and such. But she hid in one of the houses and then we couldn't find her anymore and OMG I was so worried! In the end she came home, but she was all jumpy and just a scared little kitty-cat and now I'm in overprotective cat mom mode and saying she's not going out ever again. Maybe I'll change my mind, but this first experience with kitty out of the yard wasn't a good one.

This afternoon the boyfriend and I will probably head out to get some new flowers and other plants for the backyard. The weather has been getting better over the last week and we should start making our little garden look nice again. I love shopping at this kind of store, so I'm always good with plans like this :)

I hope you're all having a great week!

Daisy Update (58)

Hi guys!

So over the past couple of weeks, I've basically been pretty busy, working the night shift of doom last weekend, which wasn't all that bad in the end, but working 13 hours a day is not my idea of fun.

On Monday I headed over to my mom's, because she and the new man in her life (though maybe not as new anymore as they've been together for 1,5 years already) were having a registered partnership ceremony on Tuesday and it was REALLY early and I didn't feel like getting up at 5AM in order to be on time because it's a 2 hour drive from our home to theirs. So we had dinner together and after the boyfriend also came over and it was nice.
On Tuesday my brother and his girlfriend and some other family came and we spent the day together. The original plan had been to go for a walk, but because of icky weather, we decided to go to a gardening centre instead and the boyfriend and I bought a pretty flower vase set thingy and I've just been staring at it ever since, it's so pretty :) And I needed some more colour in our home, so the pink and purple is really making me happy. We went out to dinner that night and it was lovely, I always love spending time with my mom and my brother, my brother and I have the same sense of humour and usually end up annoying our significant others because they can't follow all of it.

Wednesday was filled with sitting on the couch, reading Grave Mercy and cuddling the kitty, who felt neglected cause we'd been gone a full day. She's never before been alone for that long, but it seemed like she managed ok, nothing was damaged, but she clearly felt we'd offended her by being gone a night and a whole day. I did make up for it by giving her a little extra attention Wednesday and Thursday, so we're good.

On Thursday the boyfriend had the brilliant idea to go out for dinner instead of eating leftovers and we went to the other restaurant in our town that we hadn't yet been to and it was wonderful! The owner is really friendly and the food was yummy. It has the added benefit of being only a 5 minute walk from our house, so the rain didn't much bother us.

Friday was book club day! :D I met up with Debby and Mel for dinner and we talked about everything and anything and also a bit about Grave Mercy, which we all enjoyed, yay! I had Korean food for the first time ever and it was good, but not really all that special to me. But Debby has had it before and said it might be the restaurant. I love spending time with these girls!

Yesterday I thought the neighbours were coming over to our place for dinner and they thought we were coming over to theirs, so in the end we decided to have dinner at their house and we brought the desert:

It's a pavlova with strawberries romanoff and raspberries and it was SO GOOD! I'd never made this before, but OMG, it was surprisingly easy and YUM! I love trying out new recipes :) We have some leftovers in the fridge, which will probably miraculously disappear sometime today.
Oh, and I decided to take up knitting again! I've been watching a lot of tv lately and I feel so inactive if the only thing I'm doing is just sitting there watching something, so I'm knitting. It's pretty relaxing, I'm just getting back into it at the moment, making a blanket for our kitty and then I'm gonna move on to bigger projects such as leg warmers and other things :)

I hope you're all having a great week!

Daisy Update (57)

Hi guys!

I hope you're all having a nice and relaxing weekend filled with things you love!

So I surived my work-week from hell, I worked 6 days that week, including 3 night shifts and it added up to about 67 hours of work, which is a LOT, but in the end wasn't so bad. The people I shared my night shifts with are great and when we weren't treating a lot of (very) drunk people, we watched movies together, which is how I've seen most of The Godfather for the first time in my life and the first half of Goodfellas. I should mention that everyone else working the night shift was male and so I've been watching manly movies.

The ER continues to give me lots of crazy, but it's also REALLY interesting and I kinda love that it can be hectic and one evening I put 16 stitches in one guys head and then someone else came in with a crazy big headwound and I put 19 stitches in his head and just holy wow. It was pretty awesome. I also see a lot of really awful things, last Friday something particularly devastating happened and I had a hard time sleeping after that and I could feel the afereffects of it yesterday, so I just snuggled on the couch with the kitty and a blanket.

Yesterday the boyfriend and I went to visit two of our friends who had a baby last week and OMG, he was SO, SO cute! I love babies and he's extra adorable because he's the combination of two of our close friends and they made this beautiful baby boy and I'm just so happy for them! And also, they told us he basically doesn't open his eyes for visitors, but for us he did ;) I got to cuddle with him for a while and yeah, babies just make me happy. Funny thing is that we thought from the hints his parents had given us that he was going to be a girl, so my mom knitted a doll for him with a pink outfit. He's still getting that obviously.

I love cooking and trying new recipees and I've been watching a LOT of 24 Kitchen when I'm home, it's just relaxing to have it on in the background, but it seriously messes with my ability to focus on reading. BUT it has given me lots of inspiration and two weeks ago we made tapas for friends who came over for dinner and have already tried one or two recipees from the various chefs that are on. I'm trying two more this week, I hope they taste as good as they looked on tv!

We're going over to the boyfriend's grandparents in a couple of hours for his grandmother's birthday, we're going to a Chinese restaurant with the whole family this evening, so I'm already looking forward to yummy food tonight!

Daisy Update (56)

Wow, last time I did one of these was August 10... That's just a looooong time ago.

Anywho.

So I've been back to blogging these past two weeks and it's been GREAT! I love how I now have a blogging calendar and I'm actually scheduling posts in advance and not just typing everything up at the last minute. It feels really good!
I have been having some bad luck with books, I've DNF-ed 4 books in January so far and just UGH! But on the other hand, I did really enjoy most of the books that I did finish, so there's that. And I've been doing pretty well with my e-ARCs so far, sometimes I move towards that request button and then actually don't click it. Self-control, I has a little bit of it.

In other news, I'm now working in an ER and there's a LOT Of crazy going on there! I mean, it's not really like the action you see on TV shows, but it is a whole lot crazier than working in a general practice, and I'm actually really enjoying it! It's very interesting and we have a couple of interns, I love having interns, they always ask critical questions and just keep you on your toes and it's nice that I can also teach them something. That I feel confident enough that I can actually teach them something, it's a good feeling guys.
All these weird shifts in the ER leave me with a lot of free time at the moment (though there's a hellish week coming up, which will leave me like a zombie quite possibly) and I'm just enjoying spending time at home with the kitty and the boyfriend and all my pretty books! I'm pretty much in a happy place right now.

Last Monday, the boyfriend and I had dinner with the GP who I was training with last year and it was wonderful. I hadn't seen her since September and it felt really weird cause we'd worked closely together for a year and then that part of my residency ended and you just don't see each other anymore and it was lovely to catch up and see her home. And the food was really good! :)

I've been watching a LOT of TV lately, I'm very much addicted to 24 Kitchen, it's just so relaxing to see people cook and I've already tried one recipee from a show and it was SO GOOD! OMG, I'm totally making that again soon! It was a dip for chicken and nacho chips and whatever else you can think of to dip in it, with creme fraiche, spinach, sambal and cheese and just YUM!
I've also started watching Jane, the Virgin and I'm really enjoying it! It's just funny and quirky and at times a little ridiculous and just no-brain-necessary fun. Also, it sorta reminds me of Ugly Betty with all the drama and I have so much love for that show! I should start re-watching it...
And OMG, a friend of mine said Emily Owens MD was WAY better than Hart of Dixie, so I started watching that and then I found out it was cancelled after 13 episodes and I was like WTF??? That show was AWESOME (though not better than Hart of Dixie, TBH, WAAAAADDDDDEEEE) and Micah was SO cute and what the heck was going on with the ending of that last episode?? That was seriously not ok and now I will never know if Emily and Micah would have ended up together and I just have a sad over that series being cancelled, cause I loved it...

One of the guys in the same residency program as I am got married 2 months ago and yesterday night they threw a party to celebrate, so the boyfriend and I went and it was so much fun! We just had drinks and talked with my friends from residency and dancing, and the boyfriend basically doesn't dance normally, so I take advantage of it on the rare occasions that I CAN get him to dance with me :) So today we're both a little tired and lazy and aside from tidying up a bit because the lady who cleans our house is coming tomorrow (OMG someone else cleans my house, it is AWESOME), it's going to be a quiet day. We'll go over to the boyfriend's parents for dinner in a little while, so that means zero effort towards cooking today, yay ;)

I hope you're all having a great weekend as well!

Daisy Update (55) Featuring a teeny tiny kitten!

Hi guys!

So it's been about 5 months since my last update... I've been sucking at blogging lately, but as I had exciting news to share, I'm back with this update.

Last Wednesday we adopted a teeny tiny kitten from the animal shelter and since then she's been busy exploring the living room, sleeping on my lap, playing with a feather on a string and a fake mouse, sleeping on the couch, testing the limits of where we allow her to climb on (which does not include the lamp or the table) and sleeping on chairs. Basically she's been one cute little creature and I love her! We named her Zoë :)
I love having a pet in our home again, it's just more of a home with one in it. The boyfriend was a bit hesitant about getting a pet, but Zoë is so adorable, you just can't help but love her.

The only one who doesn't much like it is our neighbours' cat, who used to just walk in and out and sit in my lap sometimes, she's not allowed in the house anymore at the moment and does not appreciate this. It's kinda hard to take a good picture of Zoë cause she's so dark, I need to get a camera with flash or something.

As for other things that have happened since I last did an update: we went to Marocco for 2 weeks, which was awesome, we had the four day walking event in Nijmegen that happens yearly and is always a lot of fun, and just so many things happen in 5 months! We had 4 book club meetings and went to see The Fault In Our Stars, which broke my heart. It was worse than the book somehow!

In 3 weeks I'll be saying goodbye to the practice I'm working at now, my first year is almost over, it's hard to believe the year has gone by so fast! Which is a little sad and exciting as well.

Now I'm gonna go back to cuddling Zoë :) Hope you're all having a great Sunday!

Daisy Update (54)

I feel like I start with this every time lately, but it's been A WHILE. Seriously, it's been two months. I feel like I haven't sat down to blog in ages, and it's mostly due to this happening:

We got the key to our new home!!! I'm SO happy!! I can't take time off from work because of some silly rule, but the boyfriend has been painting and we had friends and family helping yesterday, so we've already painted all the walls and started on the floor downstairs and I'm SO EXCITED! We're planning on moving all our stuff there next weekend and the boyfriend and I spent today looking at couches and tables and all lovely new things and just YAYYYY! :D We'll have so much more space than we do now, even though I'll probably miss the apartment once we move out, because you know, I've lived here for 8 years and it'll be emotional saying goodbye.

So I've been busy planning and working and more planning and also fun things like a weekend away with friends last week and bookclub and many good things. But I've also been a bit exhausted and haven't really had much energy to spare to go into blogging.

I've also become addicted to Hart of Dixie, which you probably know, but for those of you who don't, it's about a GP in a small town and I just love it. And while I'm a GP in training, TV also sensationalizes everything. And also: it's not really deemed appropriate to wear short shorts or skirts while you're working as a doctor around here. But I do love it! It allows me to zone out and not stress over all the things I need to be doing for work/study/things around the house, other people's drama and all that :) It has drastically lessened the time I have to read though...

It'll probably be a while before everything calms down and I apologize in advance for lack of posts and lack of commenting on other people's posts, because I haven't checked my Bloglovin reader in weeks... Sorry! I'll get back to being a good blogging friend once we're settled in, promise!

Hope you're all having a great week!

Daisy Update (53)

Hi guys!

I feel like I keep saying this, but: it's been a while! At least since my last update here. This has a couple of reasons, but mainly it has to do with that 2014 has been kicking my ass these past couple of weeks and last Friday we got some REALLY good news that I'm excited to share with you, but we'll get to that!

So Christmas was ok, as much as it's my favourite holiday, this year it was just a bit weird because of my parental situation. My mom was away on vacation, so we spent the first day of Christmas with my dad, my brother and his girlfriend were there as well, so it was nice. Just weird having it be five of us instead of six. And my dad asked me to do the grocery shopping because he didn't know what to get, and man, do people go crazy shopping for their Christmas food! I mean, it felt like a jungle in the supermarket! I got out as fast as I could. Which wasn't very fast at all. But we had a nice dinner and played games and it was fun.
Second day of Christmas we spent with the boyfriend's family and ate a LOT of food again. They were two pretty uneventful days and that's ok by me.

We took my dad's dogs home with us, as he was going on vacation as well the day after Christmas, so the days in between Christmas and New Year's Eve were spent walking the dogs and cuddling with them and cleaning up after them ;)
We also had a Christmas dinner the Saturday after Christmas with some of my friends, we do this every year and everyone makes a course, it's always fun and yummy and I love spending time with these girls and they're partners!

We had another book club dinner, which was fun! We went out for tapas, discussed Howl's Moving Castle and a lot of other things. And we had a Secret Santa gift exchange, which was lovely! Debby got me Scarlet by Marissa Meyer and The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons, they both sound amazing, thanks again Debby! I love hanging out with my book club ladies! :)

On New Year's Eve (well the day of New Year's Eve) we heard that there would be people coming to check out the apartment 2 days later, so the boyfriend and I scrambled to get everything in order and cleaned and tucked away, which was pretty stressful and made me not so much in the mood to go out and celebrate that evening. So we did go over to one of my friend's and counted down with them and watched the fireworks from her rooftop terrace and after went over to one of my best friend's house to say happy new year, but after that I didn't feel like going into the city anymore, so the boyfriend and I just went home instead of partying all night long. I can't say I regret this decision.
Especially cause the day after was filled with more cleaning. And after we went over to the boyfriend's grandparents', which was nice.

So I've been pretty stressed out because over the past two weeks we've had people coming to take a look at the apartment 4 times and every time we need to tidy everything up and clean and it just doesn't feel like my house anymore when it's all decluttered. It feels sterile and less like a home and it's been hard on me. And in between we've been trying to rent a house and due to some administrative nonsense we were too late and I was just SO disappointed and frustrated by the whole process and that didn't help. And then I got sick with food poisoning and I've been a bit of an insomniac the past week and just UGH! This is why 2014 has been kicking my ass.


BUT! Here comes the part where I tell you my good news!

WE DID GET A HOUSE AFTER ALL!!! :D
We got a call Friday morning saying that someone who'd already signed a contract saying they'd be renting one of the houses I wanted backed out and it was available again! So we have an apointment with the realtor tomorrow evening! I'm SO excited! Now I can start dreaming of our pretty new house that will have a dishwasher and floor heating and just ROOM! And a garden! And a bath! And I just want to start decorating! Also: once I have our new address I can start pre-ordering books again!

I just needed a bit of good news to get me out of this funk and I'm already sleeping better and just looking at the sunny side of things again and just excitement! :)

So how are you all doing? :)

Daisy Update (52)

Hi guys!

So the blog has been lacking updates somewhat... I've just been so busy! And I'm not even sure what I've been so busy with, but I'm so ready for a couple of days off!

My residency is one thing that's been keeping me busy, lots of 'homework' for the one day a week we have classes at the university and the other four days with seeing patients and trying to juggle a social life next to that. I'm really enjoying my residency, but man, I just need a few days of not having people complain about stuff and then I'll be good to go again! I had one evening shift, which was ok and last Friday I worked the night shift and it was both really weird and pretty fun, our last patient of the night was this really cute 2-week-old baby (who thankfully wasn't sick) and it left me with warm and fuzzies.

So yesterday I tried to catch up on sleep and failed and I couldn't manage to keep warm on my own because I was so tired. We did go see a concert, we'd seen the band play before, but this time they were doing an acoustic version of all their songs and it was AMAZING! They're really talented!

Over the past three week we celebrated Sinterklaas with the boyfriend's family, had a nice day with my mom and her new boyfriend, had the puppies staying with us (which definitely made me get off the couch a lot more), I went to an amusement park with my friends, went out for drinks with the other residents and decorated our Christmas tree:

A real tree doesn't fit in the apartment and I like this one, the boyfriend's dad made it for us :)

I have tomorrow off to compensate for the night shift and I'm probably gonna spend it picking out a new washing machine as the one we have is broken... Tried to turn on the stupid thing this morning and it wouldn't start and now it's taken the clothes I put in hostage... UGH! So either the boyfriend (who is as electronically challenged as I am) will fix it or we'll just order a new one, though it's highly inconventient with the holidays and the extra time it'll probably take before it'll get here...

Anyway: yay only one more day of work before Christmas is here and my mini-break starts! :)

Daisy Update (51)

Hi guys!

It's been a while! The last update was over 2 months ago... I haven't really been in my happy place this past couple of months and this is why there haven't been that many blog posts in general. I'm actually doing pretty well, but blogging is something that requires that part of my brain that hasn't really been working lately. But I'm hoping to fix this! Cause I love blogging :)

I'll highlight a couple of things that happened the last two months:

-I had a teeny tiny birthday celebration on September 23rd, went out to dinner with the boyfriend, one of my friends and her boyfriend and it was wonderful and relaxing and just all around what I needed that evening to be. The company of people who know me well and yummy food, I loved it!

-Later that week I went out to dinner with the boyfriend, my brother and his girlfriend for my brother's birthday. We went to a sushi restaurant and man, do I love sushi! It was fun to spend time together just the four of us :)

-I worked my first weekend shift (which is SO MUCH better than the ones I had last year! This one only lasted from 8AM to 2PM, I was so surprised!), which was pretty quiet, but did have me stitching up a huge gash in someone's chin at 8.30AM. It was pretty cool :)

-Some of the other residents and I went out for a high beer. This basically means that we got 4 special kinds of beers and some snacks and just had a blast! It was nice to sit down together and get to know each other outside of the university! However, I'm not drinking beer again anytime soon...

-I went to see Beth Hart in Tilburg and it was AWESOME! I didn't know many of her songs before going to see her play, but she's incredible live! And I love her LA Song! She's also really funny :)

-We had our first and second book club meeting! In October we read More Than This and I still don't know what to say about that book, so my review is still non-existant. For November we read The Bone Season and JUST GO READ IT EVERYONE! The beginning is slow and there's a lot of info-dump, but after that it's simply amazing and THE ROMANCE! ALL THE SWOONS! There'll probably be a review for that sometime in the next couple of weeks.
I love meeting up with these girls and discussing the book (for about 10 minutes) and everything else! It's just nice to see everyone in person and really get to know the person behind the blog and Twitter handle.

-The boyfriend and I are looking at new places to live, a real house instead of an apartment and it's both exciting and terrifying! And kinda frustrating that the only houses for rent in Nijmegen are old and ugly... So we're looking at other options as well, though it'd be perfect if a pretty house somewhere around here became available for a reasonable price..

-I had a conference in Maastricht, which was all about emergency-care and was really interesting! After the conference, we had a dinner and party at a castle near the Belgian border and when we got there I just couldn't believe that all that was for us! I mean, a lot of the people there were residents like me and I've never been to anything this fancy before! Also, I don't think I've ever had wine that was that expensive before, it tasted so good! We went with almost our whole resident-group and it was so much fun!

-I went to see Catching Fire with the boyfriend and two of our friends and it was OMG SO GOOD! ALL THE FEELINGS! For more of my thoughts on this incredible move, go here.

I guess that were some of the highlights. In between these I've been working and studying and running around trying to keep everything running smoothly and at times remember to sit on the couch for a bit and just enjoy a quiet evening with the boyfriend.

Today is filled with sitting on the couch with my dad's dogs, reading, blogging and going for a long walk later on. I love quiet Sundays like this!

So how are you all doing? For those of you in the US: did you have a nice holiday weekend? Spend Thanksgiving with your family? And for my fellow Dutch bloggers: have you finished shoppping and writing your verses for Sinterklaas?

Daisy Update (50)

Hi!!

So it's been over a month since I last did one of these... I'm slowly getting back to writing blog posts, most of the reviews that have gone up were ones that I'd already written before. If you haven't seen it before, I talked about why I've been a bit quiet lately in this post, my parents are getting divorced and every time I opened up Blogger, my mind would just draw a blank on what to say. But I do want to thank all of you for being wonderful and understanding and for really just being there!

I'm still trying to figure out how we'll go from here as a family, but I am really ok with the divorce itself. I want my parents to be happy and if they can't be happy together, then this is ok too. There will be a lot of changes, but not all of them are bad, and we'll see what happens.

I'm not entirely sure how to put about a month and a half worth of happenings into one blogpost, but to sum it up, here's what happened since my last update:

-I went to Mallorca with the boyfriend, which was amazing and relaxing and we had such a good time! The island is beautiful! We didn't have WiFi at the hotel, so we were blisfully disconnected from the world for a whole week and it was wonderful!

-Then two days after we got back it was time to go to Amsterdam, where I met Kat and Vicky and was infinitely sad that Karin was sick and couldn't make it after all :( So Kat, Vicky and I explored Amsterdam by ourselves and of course went book shopping and had the most dreadful waiters ever at the restaurant we went to. Which was both horrifying and hilarious.
On Saturday we had a Book Blogger Picnic and I got to meet Debby, Judith, Celine and Lauren, who are all awesome Dutch book bloggers! We had so much fun and of course we went book shopping again :)

Picture courtesy of Vicky
From left to right: Lauren, Judith, Debby, Kat, Me, Celine

-Right after I left Kat and Vicky on Sunday, I headed over to our annual family barbecue, where I had a lot of fun going along with whatever game my 4-year-old nephew had thought up (he has the biggest imagination ever, it's awesome) and later that night hearing that my parents were getting divorced and basically just being a mess the rest of the week.

-On September 2nd I started my residency, YAY! I'm getting used to working full-time again and also having to study and do assignments and just feeling useful again! And I'm loving it! I'm learning so much and the people I work with are great! Once a week the other residents and I have a day at the university where we get some extra classes and watch recording of consults and I love the group I'm in! I'm also loving the advantages of working close to where you live, cause now I get to leave and come home at a reasonable time!

-I met up with Debby, Judith, Mel, Daphne and Iris at the Boekenfestijn in Utrecht, which is basically book sale heaven! We all came home with a nice pile of books and have decided to start a book club! We start next month, the first book we'll be reading is More Than This by Patrick Ness and I'm so excited!! The book doesn't sound particularly exciting, but I love hanging out with these ladies :) It's nice to finally meet some of the people I've been talking to on Twitter :)

-I had the parents' puppies stay with me for 2 weeks because my dad was in the US for his job and I'm really missing them! It was so nice to cuddle with them and just look at how cute they are:

So that about sums up all the major things that happened in my life over the last 6 weeks.

How are you guys? Having a nice relaxing Sunday?
I'm pretty much lazing around the house this weekend and enjoying the last day of being 25... Tomorrow's my birthday and I feel so old already! I'm going out to dinner with the boyfriend, one of my best friends and her boyfriend, so that's nice :)

Daisy Update (49)

Hi guys!!

So it's been a bit of a weird week for me, since the boyfriend was barely home and the weather wasn't as lovely as it's been the past couple of weeks, but I still managed to keep myself entertained :)

Monday it was about 30C outside and sunny, so I spent the day reading at the lake near our house once again and I just love soaking up the sun! I don't really get a tan or anything, but it's nice to just lay there and be comfortably warm because there was this nice little wind blowing as well and yeah, I just do better in warm weather :)
That night I went over to one of my friend's house to have dinner and watch America's Next Top Model together. I love hanging out with her and watching this is just something we do together.

Tuesday was filled with doing nothing but go food shopping and read and visiting some TTTs. Oh, and I started watching an old season of ANTM, back when it was so much more fun and they were VERY critical during judging and had to do all crazy assignments as well. It's awesome, even if I know who will win it.

I had originally planned to go shopping for some nice summer dresses and a bikini on Wednesday, but the weather was so blah and rainy and just nasty that I decided to hole up in the apartment instead. I did film the vlog for the Book Banging intro post that day, you can go see me be awkward in front of a camera and gush about book boyfriends here. I had a lot of fun doing this!!

On Thursday I also just sat at home and read, aside from the time I had to go over to the boyfriend's sister's place because they were delivering her new bed and she couldn't be there herself (volunteering at the same kids' entertainment week thingy that the boyfriend was at), so I let the nice men in and they carried the bed up two flights of stairs. And I read BOUNDLESS by Cynthia Hand! And OMG, SERIOUSLY THAT BOOK!! I mean, OMG, I just have SO MANY FEELINGS!! I already wrote my review, so it'll be up in the next couple of weeks (I can't believe how many reviews I still have lined up because of all the reading I've been doing these last couple of weeks).

Friday I actually went shopping, but came home with virtually nothing (at least, for me it was nothing, I usually come home with LOTS of stuff)... There weren't any cute happy clothes, they all looked sad and depressing and if this is what I can expect for this Fall, well, let's just say this won't make for a happy Daisy. Everything was so blah and I really wanted a new bikini but the only things they had were either itsy bitsy tiny things or HUGE (or a combination of a teeny tiny bottom with a huge top, or the other way around), so yeah, that wasn't going to work.

Yesterday I went for a tiny shopping trip again because I'd forgotten to buy the boyfriend's mother a birthday present on Friday. And I somehow managed to get FOUR blisters walking in my new heels and seriously, that is just silly! I wasn't even walking in them that long and I've walked in them before and just UGH! Please stop murdering my feet, because you are so pretty!
At night the boyfriend came home (yay!) and we went over to one of his friend's for his birthday. It was nice, the only thing is that they don't really live near us, so I drove 3 hours total that night, and as the boyfriend was dead tired from the whole week, he slept the whole ride back, so that was kinda boring.

In about an hour we'll be going over to the boyfriend's parents' because his mother is celebrating her birthday. So this Sunday will be filled with lots of family and food and sitting around in a food coma because of all said food ;)

I hope you're all having a great week!

Daisy Update (48)

Hi guys!

Before I forget: I have a giveaway going on for Mist by Susan Krinard and it really needs some more entries! Open to US/CAN (sorry, I'm not shipping the books myself..) and you can find it at the bottom of this post!

I'm back on a shiny new laptop that doesn't overheat and is SO much faster than the old one! It does everything I want it to do and I'm just very happy with it :)

So in case you didn't know: my laptop couldn't handle the heat and decided it was time to retire. Which meant that I was basically trying to get everything on my external hard drive before it shut itself down again. Yeah, that took a lot of time... But it worked and with a little help from one of my friends and my dad I picked out a new computer which got delivered last Wednesday, so yay :)

It's been REALLY hot here the last couple of weeks! We had temperatures up to 34C and I am loving it. A lot of people are complaining that it's too hot, but really, it's finally summer here in Holland and as long as I'm not doing much of anything besides reading, I'm totally good with it. It's been nice and sunny and I've been spending a lot of time at the lake near our house, relaxing in the sun and taking a dip every now and then to cool down.

The upside to having my laptop crash was that because I wasn't spending so much time poking around Twitter and other random sites, and because of this I read way more books! And I've been cleaning the house and doing all those little things that need doing. And having lots of dance parties by myself! Ever since I started doing Blogilates, I feel so energized and whenever a song I like comes on the radio, I just get up and dance around :) I'm feeling happy and relaxed and guys, this time off from work has just been really good for me. I'm cooking yummy new recipees and spending quality time with the boyfriend and with my friends and it's just been wonderful :)

So these last two weeks have been pretty uneventful actually. And I love it!

I went out to dinner with two of my friends to try the new sushi place, and while I still loved the food, the pieces of sushi were a bit too big to eat comfortably. But we stuffed ourselves until there was just no more room left for ANY food and I went home in a sushi induced food coma :)

This week I've been unable to walk for a couple of days due to one of the Blogilates exercises I did last Saturday, it completely murdered my calves! So from Sunday till Tuesday, I couldn't straighten my legs when I got up and had to stretch for a couple of minutes before I could actually walk. It was REALLY painful and I felt like such a little old lady walking around like that! It felt like such a victory to be able to get up on Thursday and just WALK! So now I know to take it a little easier on that particular exercise.

Friday night the boyfriend and I went out to dinner, it was lovely! I love going out to dinner and just sitting down and talking all night. It was especially nice because he'll be at his parents' pretty much all of the coming week and I needed a little quality time together before that. I'm gonna miss him this week, he's doing volunteer work entertaining kids in the village he comes from all week, so while he'll make a stop at home maybe one or two times, I probably won't really get to spend time with him until Saturday/Sunday.

Yesterday we went out for drinks with another couple and we spend a relaxing evening sitting around and talking. We have such an easy friendship going between the four of us and I love spending time with them! And the weather has been so nice that we could sit outside till about 1AM.

So in about 15 minutes I'll be dropping the boyfriend off at his parents' house and then I'm going to spend the rest of the day at my parents'. We're having a barbecue and I need to catch up with my mom and cuddle the dogs :)

I hope you're all having a great week!!

Daisy Update (47)

Hi guys!

I hope you've been having an amazing week! I sure did :)

It's wonderful to have all these days of lovely summer weather and basically having not much better to do than sit around, reading a book and doing fun things with friends! :D

Monday was a quiet day, I went to the lake just outside of the city and lay there all day, relaxing, trying to get my legs to show some other color than white (alas, they are not cooperating). For the first time in about 5 days I just stayed in at night with the boyfriend, which was nice!

On Tuesday we drove over to some of our friends who were on vacation about an hour away by car and had a lovely barbecue with them. It's so nice that we get to do stuff with other couples! We have some couple-friends, but not many that we actually hang out with often. These two are so much fun and like to eat and chat, just like we do, so it was really fun!

On Wednesday I went to the spa with one of my friends. Yes, again ;) I love going to the sauna and one of my friends wanted to try it and I had this coupon I'd gotten a while ago lying around... I love hanging out with her and catching up and just basically talking all day and relaxing in the sauna and the hot tub. And they have a salt bath! I love floating around in that, I pretty much always fall asleep there, it's wonderful!
We both got these really pretty tea mugs, here's mine:

Cute, right? And it has this thing where I can put my tea in and a little cover and I'm just very much in love with my new mug :) I already had a ton, but this one is different. Obviously.

At night we went to a concert in a church, which was so amazing! It's such a lovely setting for a concert and the acoustic is wonderful! As part of the festivities surrounding the four day walking event they're having all these concerts and performances all over the city and this was one of the special things they organised. After we hung out at another stage with some friends for a bit before heading home.

Thursday I did nothing but complain about my abs hurting. And read. It was a good day.

Friday was the last day of the walking event and I met up with some of my friends for dinner and after we went out in the city, where we met up with the boyfriend and some of our other friends. It's been so lovely out that we could just stay outside at one of the outdoor performances and dance and chat with friends. It was so much fun!

Saturday had me a bit exhausted from Friday's activities ;) But I pulled myself together and met up with some friends for a bit of shopping and then a high wine, which was fun, but we probably won't do it again. You get 2 glasses of wine and some snacks. We can probably also get this by just going to a restaurant, but it was fun to try it sometime.
I bought this totally cute bag and scarve and jeans and two really nice shirts :) Almost all of it was on sale, so yay! I think I'm most in love with my bag, I'll show you guys a picture next week, as I'm totally lazy and don't want to get up so snap a picture now ;)

The boyfriend and I will be escaping to the lake in a couple of hours, because it's totally hot and sunny and YAY SUMMER! It's way to nice to stay at the apartment! Tonight we're going out to dinner with my parents at a really lovely restaurant, YAY FOOD!

Oh, and I've started doing Blogilates and guys, I'm LOVING IT! It's so much fun, but it hurts so much! But at least I know I'm actually using the muscles Cassey mentions we should be using because they hurt the next day ;) I've been doing a bit of little-old-lady walking because of it, but oh well, it's for a good cause. I really want to get in shape a bit more, but I hate working out and this is just a lot of fun and I can do it at home, which totally helps.

I hope you're all enjoying amazing weather and a lovely weekend as well!

Daisy Update (46)

Hi guys!

So I've been blissfully doing hardly anything useful this week and it was WONDERFUL!

Monday and Tuesday I went to the lake again, it's nice to be able to be outside so much! We have a tiny balcony at the apartment, but it's tiny and it's completely out of the wind so it gets pretty hot in the sunshine and I don't really want to be there when it's full on summer (or what passes for summer) here.
So it's been nice just spending the day lying around on a beach towel and taking a dip in the lake in between. I've been reading and listening to my audiobook and just generally being all kinds of relaxed. Oh, and being chased by some kind of insect that wanted to sting me. I tried to get rid of him in the humane way by jumping into the lake, but the beastie wouldn't listen, so I wacked him eventually.

Wednesday I had dinner with my friends. One of them recently moved to a new apartment and I hadn't seen it yet, it's gorgeous! She now has so much more space than they used to and the neighbourhood they moved into is really beautiful! It was nice to catch up with them, one of them worked at the same hospital I used to, so I saw her every now and then, but the other I hadn't seen in two months!

Thursday I went to the spa with my mom and it was lovely! It was nice and relaxing, just sitting around in the sauna and the hot tub and getting a hot stone massage (BLISS). I love doing this with my mom, we talked about anything and everything :) After we went out to dinner, which was nothing special, but still nice.

Friday I had a barbecue with some of my ex-colleagues. And gosh, I've MISSED THEM SO MUCH! It was wonderful to see them again and just hang out and have a drink and eat delicious food! I came over to the one hosting the barbecue a couple hours early so I could help her prepare the food and it was nice to see her house and meet her boyfriend. I wish starting my residency didn't mean leaving all these people behind in the hospital! We'll just have to arrange to meet more often.

Yesterday was the start of the festivities surrounding the annual four day walking event that's being held in the city I live in. The walking itself starts on Tuesday, but all week long there's a sort of festival around the city and the number of people here basically increases tenfold during this week. We went out with a couple of the boyfriend's friends last night and it was fun, though it would have been even nicer if we'd gone to see some of the performances, I love live music!
I always love this event, but it does mean that people will be crashing our local supermarket, which leaves me staring at empty shelves... Oh well :)

Today is the boyfriend's family annual barbecue, so we'll be heading over to his grandparents' house in a little while. I just finished watching episode 12 of season 3 of Pretty Little Liars and OMG WTF??? SERIOUSLY?? I cannot even. SOMEONE TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS!!

Hope you're all having a great week!

Daisy Update (45)

So basically I'm sitting on my balcony, imaging I'm in this hammock instead ;) Wouldn't that be amazing??

Also, last Friday my little blog turned 3! I'm having a giveaway to celebrate, so while you're here, why don't you go enter?

In my last Daisy Update I mentioned that it would be my last day of work that week. I'm now officially jobless, or 'in between jobs', as I'll be starting my residency in September. Work was pretty quiet again and I basically just hung out with all my colleagues. It felt so weird to be saying goodbye to them all week! Some wouldn't be at the hospital on Friday, so I had to say goodbye to some of them a bit earlier than I had expected. I managed not to cry in the end, but it was a highly emotional week for me.
It was nice that on Friday they'd set aside a little time after the work was done to just talk and have a drink. They said some really sweet things and I really felt appreciated, my colleagues are the best and I'll miss them so much!!

After I got back from work, I packed up my things and went over to my parents. They were on vacation near the beach here in Holland and had invited me to spend the weekend with them, which was very nice, since the boyfriend also would be away for the weekend :)
I had a nice relaxing weekend with my parents filled with eating, reading, walking the dogs, cuddling with the dogs and just talking with my parents, mostly my mom. It's thanks to my mom that I actually ate while reading Siege and Storm, because WOW! That book was intense! And I LOVED IT!! My review will be up sometime this week I think.

It's been really weird to just be home this week. It's not a vacation exactly, cause I'm truly unemployed at the moment. I've found myself thinking about what they're doing at the hospital more than once. And being a bit sad that I'm not there with them...

But I've been doing some work around the house, cleaning and tidying and doing the groceries and such. It's much more tolerable (I first put enjoyable, but that's still not true) now that I've discovered the joy of audiobooks! I've been listening to Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay and it's SO GOOD! I hope to finish it in the next couple of weeks, but it's so much slower than just reading the book myself! Even if I can squeeze it in during moments in which I otherwise wouldn't have been able to read.

So summer has finally arrived in Holland and the weather has been lovely the last couple of days! Yesterday the boyfriend and I spent the afternoon at a local lake, which was nice. I hope to spend some more afternoons there the coming week :) It's been 11 years since I had a full summer off without having to work whatsoever and I'm slowly getting used to the idea.

I hope you're all having a great week!!

Daisy Update (44)

Hi guys!

So it's been two weeks since my last update and I've just been BUSY! I went back to work after my 3 week vacation and while work itself wasn't really all that busy, I just had a LOT of things I had to do when I got home from work. We had a couple of birthday parties and graduation parties and one soccer thing and I just don't know where the time went!

Some days at work were just a bit boring because all of a sudden it's gotten all quiet and there aren't all that many consults that need to be done or people coming into the ER. So I've been bothering my colleagues who did actually have work to do and drank coffee with our secretary and the nurses and just waited around for something to do. It was kinda nice that I got to spend some time with all the people at work because next week is my last and I will miss them so much!! I'm really excited about starting my GP residency, but I just wish I could bring all the lovely people I work with at the hospital with me!

The week before this one we had a work dinner and it was nice to spend some time with my colleagues outside of the hospital and just chat about non-work related stuff. I was on call, so I got called back into the hospital at some point, but I did get to enjoy some yummy food before that :)

Monday was the boyfriend's first day at his new job and guys, I'm loving getting up together in the morning! For so long it's just been me who had to get up at all and while I don't talk a lot before I've had my breakfast and tea, I do appreciate that another person is awake with me and moving about the apartment.

Last Friday I was working the evening shift again and I'd promised my colleague who was working the night shift, that I'd stay a couple hours extra so she could go to a party and OF COURSE it was the busiest day/night of the week! It felt like I was just running around and I was going on basically adrenaline alone and when that fell away when she arrived to take over the shift, I was just TIRED.

So I spent yesterday lazing around and doing groceries. We did go to a birthday party, but we didn't stay very long because I needed SLEEP. So today will be spent lazing around as well ;) And doing all the blogging stuff, because seriously, I kinda slacked off this week because we had a tiny heat wave and our apartment was boiling hot and it made my brain turn to mush.

This week is my last week at the hospital and I'm sad to leave! All these people I work with have been a big part of my life for the past year and it's weird that it's highly probable that I'll never see some of them again. So Friday will probably be a highly emotional day for me...
I hope you're all having a relaxing Sunday!

Daisy Update (43)

Hi guys!

So this is the last day of my 3 week vacation. And it was GLORIOUS! Seriously, I did get some workaholic twitches every now and then, but I just loved how much time I spent reading, hanging out with the boyfriend and cooking and basically just relaxing. It was awesome! I feels a bit surreal that I have to work again tomorrow ;)

I kidnapped the parents' dog for a week and we had a lot of fun together playing with his ball, going for long walks, exploring the neighbourhood and beautiful parts of the city I don't really see much of otherwise. And I just felt so fit walking him a couple of times a day! It also forced me to get up at a reasonable time, which I actually love because then you just have the whole day ahead of you! He also was a very faithfull reading/blogging buddy, I loved having him here. I so want a puppy of my own...

These are basically his favourite pastimes: playing with the ball, sleeping, reading with me and playing contortionist puppy :)

Last week from Monday till Thursday night the boyfriend and I had a mini-vacation near the beach! The weather was cooperating and it was nice and sunny and I loved it! The apartment was really nice and we could eat out on the terrace in the sun, looking out at a little port. We went to the beach one day and spent the other warm day at the poolside. We even went rollerblading one afternoon, it'd been a REALLY long time since I'd last done that, it was so much fun!
Oh, and we watched Game of Thrones episode of HORROR! UGH! I KNEW it was coming, but that still didn't prepare me and I feel really lucky that I can freak out about this with Kelly on Twitter, cause it helps. It was awful and I was just SO SAD and needed hugs... And to not go asleep for HOURS after, because holy bananas, how could I possibly sleep after that??? Seriously!

Last night I went out for dinner with some of my friends, I've known them since high school and it's fun to catch up. After dinner we had a cocktail making workshop and it was really fun! I now know how to make some cocktails myself and am going to practice them on the boyfriend soon :) Then we felt the urge to go dancing and just shook our booties till it was time to go home, so yeah, it was a good night :)

Today I've been lazing around at the parents' house were I stayed over because my high school friends live near there and I've been home for a while now, the boyfriend and I are going out for dinner later to celebrate him getting a job!! EEE! I'm so happy for him and it definitely deserves food to celebrate! :D

And after tonight it's back to the real world for a little bit! I have 3 weeks left at work before my contract ends and I'll be unemployed for the summer. And really, if you're ever unemployed, what better season than the summer? It does feel really weird to be saying goodbye to all my colleagues soon, makes me a little sad... But I'm really looking forward to my residency, so it's all good :)

I hope you're all having a relaxing sunny Sunday!

Daisy Update (42) and Book Haul! (14)

Hi guys!

So basically, this week I spent a whole lot of time doing gloriously nothing :D

Sound exciting? No? It kinda was though :) I cooked, I read, I slept, I spent quality time with the boyfriend, watched more episodes of Pretty Little Liars, it was AWESOME!

On Thursday I had an information day for my residency starting in September and we had a sort of speeddate with the GPs we could be interning with for a whole year, so I was kinda nervous about that and afterwards I was just so TIRED. But the good kind of tired :)

Yesterday I went out for a high tea with some of my friends from high school and we ate yummy food and drank gallons of tea and generally had a good time. After that I visited my parents and got them to hand over one of their dogs for the week, so I now have a reading buddy :) This also forces me to leave the house a couple of times a day, which is a good thing, cause I get lazy.

And that's pretty much it. Do you know how much I love how uneventful this week has been? :D MORE OF THIS IN THE COMING WEEK!

Book Haul

It's been a while since I did a Book Haul here, if I'd want to recap everything since the last time, it'd take way too long, so I'm just gonna list what I got my hands on over the last two weeks:

Egalleys for review:
-Asylum by Madeleine Roux: it sounds SO CREEPY! :D
-The Angel Stone by Juliet Dark: I really enjoyed the first book in this series and am excited to get to the sequels.
-All Our Yesterday by Cristin Terrill: this just sounds SO GOOD! And something that the boyfriend could read as well :)
-Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein: ALL THE EXCITEMENT! I loved Code Name Verity SO MUCH!
-The Rules of You and Me by Shana Norris: sounds like the perfect summer read to me :)
-Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts: what would YOU do if you only had a couple of days left to live, together with the rest of the world?
-I Married the Duke by Katharine Ashe: I love Katharine Ashe's historical romance and this one has a 'dashing sea captain' in it! Which is almost as good as a (gentleman) pirate! :D
-The Trouble With Being A Duke by Sophie Barnes: they meet at a MASQUED BALL! YES I WILL READ THIS!
-The Ruin of a Rogue by Miranda Neville: unexpected love and deceit and all of these good things :)
-Invisible by Marni Bates: I've heard many good things about Awkward and this just sounds really cute!
-Resist by Sarah Crossan: ok, so I haven't read Breathe yet, but I'm dying to! And then I can just continue with this! :D
-Confessions of Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey: this series is amazing and I'm probably gonna cry at this final book, cause we all know what happens to Marie Antoinette...

Not pictured: One Doctor by Brendan Reilly

Bought:
-Inferno by Dan Brown: it was a total bargain and I couldn't resist the shiny cover!
-The Heiresses by Allison Rushby: about triplet in 1926 London. Need I really say more?
-Impossible by Nancy Werlin: a modern day fairytale about a family curse, COUNT ME IN.
-Beauty by Nancy Ohlin: set in a boarding school in a fantasy world. Seriously, why would I NOT read this?
-Oath Bound by Rachel Vincent: I own the whole series and have read none of the books, but I'm sure they will be awesome!
-Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins: yes, I do still need to read the first book... But the covers are so pretty!
-A Farewell to Charms by Lindsey Leavitt: LOVE THIS SERIES! Can't wait to finally read this last book!
-If I Should Die by Amy Plum: very much loved Die For Me and I really need to get on with the series!
-The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller: it looks ADORABLE!

Leave me a link and I'll be sure to check out your haul!

Daisy Update (41) On a Monday!

So I usually do this on Sundays, but as I was kinda busy yesterday I thought, well, let's just do it on Monday instead :)

Last time I told you guys how I was SO EXCITED about getting accepted for the GP residency and the Monday after I got a call telling me I could start in September 2013 instead of March 2014!! This lead to more excitement of course, cause now I won't have to look for a job to tie me over and I can just START! YAY! I feel really lucky and happy and just HURRAY! :D

So that week I only had to work Monday till Wednesday and I actually had a pretty decent evening shift, with only 1 patient coming into the ER. Which is awesome, because really, it's been insanely busy the last couple of months and now I just had room to breathe. And eat, which is pretty unusual.

Friday it was the boyfriend's birthday and we had some friends over in the afternoon who stayed for dinner and his and my family came over after, it was really fun and kinda exhausting. I kinda yawned the guests away around 11.30PM and after a while they got the hint ;)

Saturday we went out for drinks with some friends, which was fun and Sunday it was Mother's Day and it was time to go hug my mom and have dinner with her, my dad and my brother. We don't really spend a lot of time together as a family and it was nice to just have it be the four of us.

Last week was just BUSY. All together I think I worked 75 hours, which is sorta crazy. I was working on one of the wards again and I just love that! I also love that there are now 2 residents on a ward and I have so much more time to get to know the patients instead of just 'managing' them! It's nice to be able to do a little extra for them and not run around like a crazy person trying to get everything done on time! And now I actually have time to get coffee and socialize a bit with the other residents and nurses :)

Have you guys heard anything about the Eurovision Song Contest? I watched the semi-final on Thursday and seriously, I just laughed SO HARD at some of the performances! If you're interested in seeing why, I'll leave the links to the youtube clips of Macedonia and Romania:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi1VYsOUCsY

Where did they get all that red fabric???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV3xp5ZXSYA

Move over Edward, here's another glittering vampire!

Oh, and just because I've been singing this with one of my coworkers ALL DAY Friday:



Even after a couple of years, it's still hilarious!

So, enough of these musical shenanigans!

Saturday was my last 24-hour shift and it was kinda ok! I only had one patient in the ER ALL DAY! Seriously, I was so surprised! One patient is pretty much NOTHING. I did have some sick patients on our wards, but for a whole day it was pretty ok. Two had a lot of fluid in their chest and I totally rocked doing a punction and draining some of it. It's still a little scary to stick a pretty big needle in someone's chest, but it went really well and it helped the patients! I didn't get much sleep at night because of some questions over the phone and one patient died, which was expected, but still.

Yesterday I just conked out when I got home and in the afternoon it was time for the annual barbecue we have with the boyfriend's friends. They have a carnival this weekend every year and we always get together for the barbecue at someone's house, this year it was at the boyfriend's parents' and it was really fun! They pretty much all have girlfriends and I like hanging out with them. I didn't join them when they went on to the carnival, because I was ready to fall asleep standing up and decided it was a better idea to just go home.

Today I'm just gonna give into my hermit tendencies and relax and not look presentable, because hey, noone's home except for me. I have 3 whole weeks off and I plan on reading ALL THE BOOKS and watching Pretty Little Liars and Grey's Anatomy and cook yummy food and maybe go on a little vacation and just have lots of quality time with the boyfriend! :) Oh, and go shopping. Cause seriously, what's time off without a little retail therapy? :)