Summer Break

I'm back from my unannounced and unintentional Summer Blog Break! Stay tune for "before and after" house updates, delicious food findings, and life updates.

Happy Monday ya'll!

P.S. Don't fret. I've been keeping up with all of your blogs pretty stinkin' well.

bAbY and PoPcoRN

Colt helped keep my mind off the mess my house was becoming while B, Sar, and Charles conquered their fear and scrapped the too-tall-for-Amy-to-scrape ceilings. My family is the best!

Pardon my progress: my house is a mess. I have good intentions of conquering a huge list of tasks every day only to realize that I can do half of it in the time God gives me in one day... this is a daily occurrence. I had a wonderful idea to get that nasty popcorn off the ceilings, "Now this is something I can definitely get done in a couple of weeks, popcorn and texturing can't be too hard". 3 weeks, tears, 20 ft scaffolding, tears, white hair, white snot, a HUGE mess, and a wonderful family later, the ceilings are scraped and NOT textured. I will now hire someone to texture and love every second of it! Let me know if you need me to talk to you out of conquering the world by remodeling your ceilings... THAT i CAN do!!!

Event #2

Today I become a homeowner... really I became one the day I found my new place and began moving myself in and out over and over again in my head. Today is the OFFICIAL day. I was suppose to close next Tuesday but due to some very unfortunate events on the previous owners part, today it is. As I am over joyed with this stage in my life, my heart is heavy and eyes wet for the previous owners. If you have time, please say a quick prayer for that family, pray for the comfort and peace that only God can grant.

Stay tune for exciting transformations and bargain news as I move in, settle down, and get cozy.

Event #1

I officially became a big girl when Colt Steven Gregg was born April 10th @ 4:21 am. This big girl is now an AUNT. See the little pookie face for yourself.

2 Hours Old

Colt and Aunt Amy

Easter Baby

Beautifully handsome

Oh and...Perfect!

The perfect sister of the bride and LOVE her dress.
Those buttons down the back and subtle
amount of lace just do it for me!

My New Life

It's been a busy "big girl" month. I would say I'm in the running for undergoing the most "big girl" events in one month . Let me know if you want to compete (exception: I will not compete with soon-to-be brides)!!!

Hang loose and I'll get you up-dated.

Father of the Bride

$1.02 @ Goodwill will satisfy my want for a girlie feel-good movie today, tomorrow, and always or at least until my dvd/vcr player lets me down. 

Craft for Colt

Baby Colt will be here any day and big events require a craft of some sort. While brainstorming with the Mother about her son's room, we both knew the hand-me-down chest of drawers needed fun knobs. We searched high and low for knobs that resembled airplanes, trains, cars, true red, navy blue, green, we weren't being picky! We found... NOTHING! Only girl knobs. 

Then momma Jen ran across these Etsy beauties (i wish i knew who to give credit to, thank you!)

So we ran to one of the man stores down the road and hobby lobby to get all the supplies.

Then started drawing the non-perfect yet perfect cars, applied the paint, and finished within an evening.

Supporter 

Final Product minus the shine protective coating

Ya got me thinkin' Laura Story

Have you ever run across a song that "gets you" every time you listen to it? Or every time you listen to a song a different line pops out at you and gets you thinking?

Listen

What song "gets you"? Tell me. Comment.

Almost forgot to mention

I washed my iTouch with my sheets yesterday. Please let that be the last blonde moment for a long long time.

Thanks to my childhood friends who will always be easy to catch up with and talk to.

Thanks to Kendra and Jessica for reading and commenting on my blog. I'm thankful that God put you two in my life pretty much from day one.
Jess~ remember cutting tortilla's with butter with scissors on Sunday afternoons?
Kendra~ I wish I had our notes that we wrote and hid in Mrs. Ott's house! (she's smiling right now even though I'm pretty sure that's not how her last name is spelt!)

Ok, so 7 random things about myself:

1. My favorite holiday is July 4th-my b-day.

2. My comfort breakfast is either crunchy peanut butter + Griffin's original syrup + a piece of toast + a big cold glass of milk OR Chicken Mini's + OJ+ Hash browns from chick-fil-a.

3. I'm a pro at starting projects and taking months to finish.

4. I have a love/hate relationship with Spring/Summer/Fall. I love the seasons. The bad thing about these seasons for me is the anticipation of whether or not there will be a spider on the other side of the shower curtain.

5. My brother married my best friend and I will be an aunt to the handsome Colt Steven Gregg in just a few weeks!!!

6. I love being a nurse.

7. I enjoy organizing other people's stuff.

Now it's your turn:
Sarah (knows how to put deep thoughts into beautiful words)
Ashley (everything blogs are things she would say and mean if you talk to her in person)
Katie (miss her a whole lot)
Bianca (creative blog, creative girl)

Warm fuzzies

My new running shoes, Brooks Adrenaline, are to my feet as a hug from a loved one that you haven't seen in a while is to my heart. (obviously the hug has more meaning but i'm talking feelings people)

Dear lady at the gym who appears to be definitely over 65,

It's risky to wear only a sports bra to work out in, but it's not good for you or anyone else's health for you to wear only your WHITE sports bra-like garment to work out. You have a good body for an individual that has a few years under her belt. You lift more arm weight than ever may lift. Your skin is a beautiful tan color but it's not tight anymore and that's ok. I hear gravity starts to take a toll on the body after 40. I have accepted that and hope you will soon. Again, you have a good body for your age. In fact, I wouldn't mind having your body at that age but please keep the essentials covered. Please start by wearing a colored, padded bra. Thank you for setting a good example for me-I want to be strong like you at some point in time.

Looking forward to seeing you all covered up,

Amy

My Valentine's Day "Moment"

I feel obligated to share a true blonde moment since that's the title of my blog. I'm always having "blonde moments". Everyone has these "moments" but God has blessed me with blonde hair.

B's favorite dessert is Blueberry Ripple Cheesecake. He took us out to dinner so I was going to provide the dessert. This isn't a straight forward cheesecake. It requires you to boil a sugar, water, cream of tatar mixture until it "spins a thread". Since this is NOT an every day cooking task, I ruined it. But that's not the "moment". After I noticed the clear liquid turning yellow, my nice plastic spoon leaving black pieces in the mixture, burning my fingers trying to get the plastic out, and realize attempt #1 was a lost cause, I quickly poured the mixture down the sink so the candy mixture wouldn't stick to the pan and ruin it. I tried the sugar, water, cream of tatar mixture again in a different pan but this time using a wooden spoon and keeping the boiling temp a little lower. The mixture started turning yellow and smelling... it was a lost cause again. I came to grips the reality of no Blueberry Ripple Cheesecake on V-day, i was... ok with that. But I was NOT ok when I turned on the garbage disposal and realized I had a candied garbage disposal.
So, I pick up the phone to call B and the conversation goes something like this:

Me: Something really bad just happened, I did something really bad.
B: Babe, what happened? (thinking someone has died or something REALLY bad)
Me: Don't laugh now, but you can laugh later.
B: (chuckle)
Me: I told you not now.
B: What did you do?
Me: I was trying to be thoughtful and sweet and make you... blah, blah, word vomit confession time... and I candified the garbage disposal, what do I do???
B: You did what? Candified the garbage disposal?
Me: Yes, how do I fix it? (why is it natural for me to assume he knows the answer? Why would he know the answer? He's never done this)
B: You have to melt the candy somehow. Try boiling water and pouring tons of it down the sink. Amy, just think, the worst thing that could happen is you have to buy a new disposal. You didn't do something REALLY bad. No human is involved and your fingers aren't burnt off so everything is just fine.

The hot water trick worked on the garbage disposal but now I have the pans to deal with. HOW DO I REMOVE HARD CANDY OFF OF THE TWO SAUCE PANS? Or do I need to save my finger nails and time and go buy new ones? Please help before the roomies go looking for a sauce pan.

Time to show off...

I was told to go to the front door to make sure his shovel was still there b/c he was going to come get it later....
that pretty little lier knows the way to my heart.

I love flowers. I love the boy too!

Bringing Me Smiles

After my mini vaca at the hospital and his Man Trip to Utah, i'm enjoying being in the same town less than 2 miles apart. Loves our Hide Away date last night when we shut the place down.

WILD THING CLIPS & SET OF TWO FLORAL ROSETTE HAIRCLIPS

$1.50 from Forever 21. These are small treasures to help spice up scrubs. They add a little flare w/o being too obnoxious (at least that's what I think!)

This candle brings me comfort, makes my nose happy, and makes my  white room whiter.

Happy 20th Birthday precious sister. In our teenage years we were different. We fought. When I became a woman you were still watching Barney. When you became a woman, I taught you. I liked boys. You didn't know they existed. You didn't understand my tears and tended to get annoyed with me. You couldn't relate in my exciting times.

Now that we are both in our 20's, we are becoming more and more alike. So much that we can trick people into thinking we are twins. We still fight... about clothes... much more fun. We can go on girl dates and talk. We can relate about boys, friends, joys, troubles. We ask each other's opinion and it actually matters now.
I can't wait to see what our 30's, 40's, and whatever comes after that looks like. Hopefully it will look a lot like 2 sisters we love and know very well, Mom and Aunt Pat.

   My snowy front door. I could get used to this sight.

Hospital Dorm Life

When it snows everything shuts down...everything but medical facilities. Life goes on for these people and patients.

First question: How many people does it take to run a hospital?

In order to have enough people to work both day and night, they must have enough dr's, nurses, pharmacists, cafeteria workers, housekeeping, etc to run for a full 24 hrs. That means two shifts worth of people. For example, to properly operate the 8th floor (the floor I work on) we need 11 nurses for day and 11 for night. That's 22 nurses for one floor not counting housekeeping and doctors. That's ALOT of people for the whole hospital!!! 

Second question: How does a facility get THAT many people to stay?

Glad you asked, they call a CODE YELLOW (i now HATE the color yellow). A code yellow represents an internal disaster, meaning, we need people here to take care of patients. 

Third question: So you stay there, like eat, sleep, pee, shower, brush your teeth, change in front of the girls you work with???

Yes, I did all of those things.

Forth question: Where do you do all of those things?

We stayed in conference rooms, offices, anywhere you could find an empty spot. They provided cots to sleep on. I was lucky and got to sleep on a lazy boy that popped back to the upright position when i moved the first night and an air mattress the second night. The conference room I stayed in was a couple of doors down from the patient's rooms that I took care of for two days. I was forced to walk my pretty little I-look-like-death hinny down the hall where i was expected to be a nurse to take a shower, potty, everything! 

Fifth question: What about food? That's the most important part.

They were generous enough to provide us with free meals for almost 2 days. It was decent food. I was weird seeing EVERYONE you work with doing normal every day activities. It was like college again except in a professional setting and outside is off limits!

That is Hospital Dorm Life for you. As for today, I'm so thankful to be in my PJ's, on the couch, watching movies, eating anything I want, drinking hot drinks, shopping online, downloading music, and looking at the pretty snow safe and sound! 

Diva Banana Bread

I . LOVE . Banana Nut Bread. So I'm always looking for a good recipe. I ran across this Banana Bread recipe and loved it... with some additions that make this bread totally diva.
*Before baking, mix in CHOCOLATE CHIPS and nuts of your choice.
*After pouring it into your pan, sprinkle the top with a thin layer of cinnamon/sugar combo.
YUM, YUM, YUM, YUM!

Food for thought: I don't know about you, but I was raised thinking that it's a treat to have homemade bread for breakfast (banana nut being my favorite). The more I bake, the more I realize that "breakfast breads" and "cake" are the same thing. So why is it not "ok" in my head to feed kids cake for breakfast? I've seen it at the hospital and I may have said some not nice things.

Body Warming Tomato Soup

This sherried tomato soup warmed my body. I'm not a huge tomato soup fan but this is da-lish. Go on the light side with the sugar. I went heavy and it was a little too sweet. You can always add more but it's hard to remove sugar from soup.

Dear Mrs. Ree Drummond,
Thank you for all you've done for my taste buds and kitchens around the world. Thank you for being bold about the Southern style of cooking. I'm sure you've endured harsh words concerning calories, fat, grease, sodium, etc. But I say, bring it on. It makes me happy!

Love, 

Amy Jo

To-do List for Week of 11/23

Days off: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday

List:
Laundry-Tuesday
Pedicure and paint by me
Grocery Store-Tuesday
Brainstorm Valentine's Day
2nd chapter of He Chose the Nails
Take shower before 11
Wash car
No Bake cookies-Friday
Crock pot Pulled Pork-Tuesday
Dive into Unshaken
Stay focused on to-do list

End of 10, Beginning of 11

Let me catch you up with pictures and a few words:

It's a baby boy day: Colt Steven Gregg come to Aunt Amy

Happy Thanksgiving from Duncan

Happy Birthday Brian & Jacoby Christmas in PA

Merry Christmas from the Gregg Family

Breckenridge, CO