Spaghetti Squash Chronicles

I am not a chef, nor do I even remotely claim to be able to cook. Sometimes I bake incredibly well, but when I try to use the stove top... well, let's just say I have to keep the vent fan on, fans running, and back door open or else I will smoke up the house in no time.

That being said, I really love bacon. Like, REALLY love it. I could never be Jewish.

So, I found this recipe awhile back on Pinterest using bacon, spinach, goat cheese, and spaghetti squash. Doesn't sound like a very appetizing combination but ermahgerd... it is like heaven in your mouth. ALSO! Bonus! It is super easy! The most tedious part would be cooking the bacon but you could probably even throw it in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes on each side so it crisps up nicely. I usually just use my pan and dirty up my stove top.

Disclaimer: Doesn't ever turn out like the pictures

Ingredients: 

1 medium spaghetti squash

1 tablespoon olive oil

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

6 slices bacon, cut in 1-inch pieces

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 5-ounce bag baby spinach

2 ounces soft goat cheese, crumbled

The first step is throwing the squash in the oven after cutting it. I cut mine long ways (hotdog style - not hamburger). Then I scoop out the innards similar to that pumpkin carving I never got around to this year for Halloween. I drizzle oil over the top (side note - this time I used sunflower oil and I'm thinking it probably needs EVOO or less oil than what I used because this time it wasn't as good and somewhat mushy). Basically, drizzle the oil over it to coat. Use your fingers to spread the oil if you need. Place the squash face down your dark, nonstick pan and pop those suckers in the oven for an hour and go catch up on the Walking Dead. (Seriously, WHY was there a midseason finale? This isn't South Park..... BRING IT BACK NEXT WEEK AMC)!

Next, pull the squash out and set aside to cool. Then, cook your bacon how you normally would. I chop mine up into small pieces and cook it that way. This time we used peppered maple bacon (*drools*). Use any kind you'd like. I have found that using the thick-cut bacon equals more hearty pieces in the finished dish.

When all of the bacon is cooked, I usually remove most of the grease from the pan, just leaving maybe 1-2 tablespoons in the bottom. Pour your red wine vinegar and maple syrup into the pan with the bacon. Now, I KNOW this recipe calls for 1 tablespoon a piece. I see that more as a suggestion, kind of like the speed limit signs.

Mix your sauce really well with the bacon, coating it all. It makes this sweet glaze that makes you want to eat the bacon before your dish is even put together.

Start throwing in your spinach, little by little, letting it wilt into the sauce and bacony-goodness. Set this pan aside off of the heat and take a fork to your squash. Pull the fork across the squash to make stringy spaghetti-looking strands. Very good. Put these in a bowl.

Next, add your bacon and spinach mixture to your squash bowl. When you've finished that, add your goat cheese (my favorite) and start mixing! The goat cheese creates a really creamy binding-agent for everything in your dish and adds a punch of flavor! Yum!

When you're finished, eat dinner by yourself and enjoy your fresh flowers while your husband plays video games in the next room over.

Spaghetti Squash dinner... party of 1

Maybe even enjoy a mushroom cupcake when you're done!

Give thanks

November is a month that really brings focus to gratitude and appreciation. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought I'd update with a few things for which I am thankful.

1) My husband. *cue sappy man crush post* I mean, y'all, really. This guy. He is the bomb. He makes the bed for me, he leaves out "night night clothes" which usually consist of his army PT shirts and his sweatpants, he cooks me dinner... sometimes, but he ALWAYS is concerned about my well-being. He rubs my feet when I'm exhausted, and just overall- even aside from his actions- I am just so thankful that he loves me. I know that we were meant to be together, and God shows me daily that he is my soulmate.

2) My family. Both sides. I can't believe how amazing each and every one of them are. Everyone is so supportive, caring, and loving of each other and of me, and my in-laws have been so welcoming of me into their lives. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be related to such great people. I miss my parents and brother a lot, and being 21 hours away is hard sometimes. I'm also thankful for routes of communication so that we can talk anytime!

3) My job. Sometimes it isn't easy. In fact, some nights it feels like the hardest thing I've ever done. Nursing school was a giant accomplishment and some nights I feel like just making it until 0700 is one of my life's biggest accomplishments, but it's absolutely fantastic. I love the children I get to work with, my coworkers are great, and the location is incredibly convenient. I still can't believe I got my dream job from halfway across the country. I know someone was looking out for me by blessing me with becoming a pediatric nurse! 

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers"

So, let's go back to October for just a minute.

First of all- it is my absolute favorite month. The weather is nice (everywhere except Texas), the leaves are changing colors (on the East coast), and there are pumpkins everywhere! The beginning of Fall is always such a happy time. Everyone is, for the most part, finished sweating for the year (unless you live in Texas), and it's beginning to look a lot like sweater weather (once again.... you catch my drift). I've lived here for 6 months now. I can hate on Texas all I want!

My brothers and sisters-in-law, Preston, the kids, and I went to the pumpkin patch about an hour away from Killeen in Marble Falls. It was super cute! Incredibly hot, but it was fun nonetheless. They had an entire corn maze shaped like the state of Texas with major cities being stopping points so we could stamp our cards they gave us. Side note, I will never understand the obsession Texans have with the shape of Texas. It's literally everywhere. I always say I suppose Texans just need daily reminders of where they live because they MUST forget. Anyway, I digress.

We also took the boys trick-or-treating. Porter was Iron Man and Benson was Captain America. Be still my heart! They were SO CUTE!

Yes, it most definitely DOES take 6 adults to take 2 children around the neighborhood for candy :)

In NC I also got to visit with the Wamback clan and the Christies, went to the fair with Tanya, had lunch with Lauren, drinks with Katharyn, and dinner with Taylor, my cousin Tiffany, and her boyfriend Dabney. It was so cold the windshield iced over one morning. Hallelujah! I got to wear long sleeves and turn the butt warmers on in the car! I'm glad I got to see everyone and catch up. I miss Raleigh. I miss the cold, and the views, and the trees (I will never get over the lack of tall trees in Texas). I miss the BOGO sushi, the lake, my friends, and my family. Maybe one day we will end up back on the East coast.

Lazy Bones!

So I am pretty lame at keeping up anything more than showering daily and arriving to work on time... I always say I'll be better about it, but lezbe honest here... that probably won't happen.

He's my spirit animal for sure. 

Anyhoo, onto the life happenings!

Back in September I went to the Time Out For Women conference in Arlington, Texas with my sisters- and mother-in-law. I wasn't too entirely sure about it at first. I figured it would be super church-y and Mormon-y and much to my surprise, it wasn't. (I mean, yes, there was prayer and mention of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon) but all of the guest speakers gave great speeches on relatable life stories. I laughed really hard, I may have shed a tear or two, and overall felt really uplifted by everything the speakers had to say. It was a good time after all! There was even a firework show across the street at the baseball stadium that lasted almost a whole year. Maybe that's a little exaggerated. Faith definitely took a 10 minute video, though, at least.

In October I worked a lot, finished my orientation and began life as a nurse all on my own.  It was pretty scary but they went really easy on me with my first couple of patient loads. I've found as I've worked for about a month on my own now that the assignments are hit-or-miss. You can't really plan for a baby to wiggle out of her IV or for a colostomy pouch to explode at 0620 in the morning at the same time...

They allow us to dress up during the week of Halloween, too. Usually it's a theme I guess but this year only 2 of us on night shift dressed up.  We were Belle and Elsa. Belle had to help me keep my wig intact and put my hair into it since it was super small. I walked through a monsoon to get that costume, though, so I was stuck in it until my scrubs dried off (wasn't until around midnight). I dropped more glitter than I thought humanly possible (Ke$ha would be jealous) that night.  The kids loved it, though, so it was worth it.

Also in October was my brother-in-law, Spencer's, birthday. We went to "B-dubs" for dinner and surprised him.  Faith did a great job pulling that one off, and it was a super delicious dinner. The whole restaurant sang him happy birthday and we got him a hat that the boys ended up wearing more than he did.  I don't even think I got any pictures of Spencer that night. Was he even there? No one will ever know....

I went home for 5ish days in October, also. What a busy month!! It was a great trip, but next time I go I need to not make as many plans. I didn't really get to do many things that I went home for in the first place (aka mountain visit and sunset lake pictures/walks), but I'm really glad I went because I got to see our family dog one last time.  About a week after I got back to Texas I received a text from Taylor (my brother) telling me that they had to put her down. She was 15, and started to have really bad seizures. She had about 5 Monday morning (the 26th) and finally one that lasted over an hour. My dad and brother took her to the vet's office who gave her 3 shots of a seizure medication that didn't do anything to her.  They said they usually only give 2 shots but gave the extra just in case. They told my dad they couldn't do anything to help her but that he could take her to the NC State Vet school because they had stronger drugs but he just decided to put her down at that moment. She was 15, lived a long, fairly healthy life, loved walks around the lake and chasing squirrels, was more deaf than Helen Keller in her old age, yet still so super spunky.  She was the best first dog a girl could have, and I loved all the time I got to spend with her. It will be so different going home without her there now. I will miss her so much. I get so teary-eyed thinking about her and even typing this up is a struggle at the moment.

I have tons of pictures of her, but these are some of my favorites. What a sweet Abby girl. I hope there are a billion squirrels and "spots" (laser pointers) in heaven! 

Homemade sushi!

Preston and I have made homemade sushi a few times now.  We bought calrose rice (any kind of sticky rice will do) from HEB along with a couple of packages of nori sheets and a bamboo mat for rolling.  Our ingredients vary depending on what we like or want, but each time has ended up being the most yummy stuff ever. 

We cook the rice in our crock pot/rice cooker for as long as the package directs. Usually we cook about 3/4 cup of rice in 1 cup of water to yield 1 cup of cooked rice for 2 sushi rolls for each of us. 

We then slice our ingredients (make sure you have a sharp knife!) which included cucumber, avocado, cream cheese, crab stick, salmon, and jalapeno last night. 

They. Were. DELICIOUS. 

I don't have pictures of the step-by-step process but there are plenty of tutorials online like here and here. 

We made 2 rolls each. Mine were both modified California rolls with cream cheese and cucumber added.  Preston likes the spicy rolls with jalapeno, salmon, cucumber and cream cheese. We talked about making spicy tuna but we haven't committed, yet. 

There are sets available in stores for beginners that come with all of the tools you need to create your own sushi roll. We just like making them so much that we invested in supplies. :)

We also enjoy dressing the plates with spicy mayo and soy glaze. It enhances the flavor AND the presentation! 

#goGOLD

September is childhood cancer awareness month. Never in my life could I have imagined the joy these kids bring to me. I love the beautiful minds and playful hearts these kids continue to have during this traumatic time in their lives. I can tell you honestly that I've never met anyone stronger and braver than a child with cancer. Let's bring awareness to childhood cancer so that one day soon we may find a cure and children can stop the suffering and lead long, healthy lives! #goGOLD #childhoodcancer #childhoodcancerawareness #bthocancer #pediatricnurse #pediRN

Unintended hiatuses... or hiati?

I'm not so good with the upkeep of the blogging. Maybe it's because we don't have Internet? OR maybe it's because I truly am that lazy. Most likely it is both. I'm using up data right now to type this. You're worth it, though. 😘

Preston is back to work after TWO super sucky surgeries on his gallbladder. His first surgery was May 29th which was 2 days after we got to Texas. What was supposed to be a 1 hour laparoscopic cholecystectomy ended up being a 5 hour open cholecystostomy placement. For those who don't know, that's a tube that helps the bile drain from your gallbladder. Apparently his insides were completely torn up and inflamed from a gallbladder attack at the beginning of May (which put him in the hospital for 4 days... literally right before he was due to fly to Raleigh and marry me again/move me to Texas) and the doctor said cutting through his gallbladder was like trying to slice through rock. It wasn't going to happen. So, she placed a tube into his gallbladder to help the bile drain and he had to walk around with that sucker for TWO months! Talk about a damper on life. He couldn't swim or do anything fun. Poor guy. 

Being a totally good sport while we all swim without him. 

His gnarly scar. 

The funniest thing about all of this was that when he woke up, he started complaining about how ugly his belly button is now... LOL. That boy... 

So on July 27th he went in for his second surgery which ended up being another 5 hours but this time stayed laparoscopic. The surgeon took her time using a Q-tip looking tool and wiped away all of the adhesions that had formed around his gallbladder before finally taking the whole organ out. 

That hospital visit pissed me off. I had just started working at the Children's Hospital so I wasn't present during his recovery period, but he let me know that they messed up his pain medication after he told them that IV morphine wasn't working. He requested the dilaudid PCA that he had received the first time and so after 4 hours, they brought him a morphine PCA. He tried it twice and it still didn't work so he told the RN who then took the PCA away and started giving him tylenol. What the crap. I was furious when he told me this. What's even better is that his electrolytes were low so they hung potassium piggyback on a separate pump than his IV fluids... which conveniently stopped working so after a minute his hand started to burn. He said he called the nurse but it took 10 minutes for anyone to get there. For those of you who are unaware of what straight potassium does, it can cause severe cardiac arrhythmias. So, needless to say if he needs another surgery I'm taking him straight to Scott & White and we will not be receiving care at Darnall ever again. I am so thankful he is okay now!

NCLEX happenings

So here it is! My first post as a registered nurse with a bachelor's degree. What. A. Frickin. Ride. I have literally been in college for a billion years (maybe not THAT literal). BUT, 9 years is a very long time to get your undergrad. It's been the most stressful and most rewarding time of my life. Years of failures, nursing school, sleepless nights, and mental breakdowns led to sitting in a room in some sort of cubicle thing at a computer for a little over an hour. 76 questions. Only 9 select all that apply. That monumental moment felt like 10 minutes at best, and I was out of there. Sent out into the world to wait a grueling FORTY-EIGHT hours for results! When I got home I did the Pearson "trick" and tried to re-register and when it didn't let me, I cried. I cried knowing that the trick works every time, and I cried knowing that I'll never have to stress THAT intensely ever again. I cried over the countless hours that I spent crying over the past 9 years. And then after 48 hours and an unofficial pass from Pearson, I cried again. Y'all, nursing school is the single hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. I lost touch with friends, I didn't have time to call my family, I hardly had time for Preston. It was just tough. I commend every person who has ever trekked down that path with me. I am done for good! If anyone mentions grad school to me I will shut my ears off, smile, and nod politely all while probably saying a few choice words about you in my head. I'm not being mean, it's just not a good time for jokes right now. 

I've never been happier to have my life back, to get to keep my dream job, and all from one simple screen shot from my phone. 

Day 2: The Texan Transplant

Our second day of driving was nowhere near as exciting as the first. If you don't know already, Arkansas is boring. Very, VERY boring. And flat. And long (that's what she said).  We had a 12/13 hour trip  so we left the houseboat and began our journey through the right half of the United States. Tennessee was pretty, but there was a lot of bad weather.  I let Jack out briefly in the car and he growled at the guy getting out of his car next to us at the gas station, haha.  So far being in Texas is not his favorite. We took him to Preston's parents house and he has been hiding underneath our bed since we left him.  Poor thing.  

#southarkalina

helping me drive

Made it! 

We are sitting at the hospital now waiting for Preston to get his gallbladder taken out. It's been acting up/infected for a few weeks, and he even had a fever the night before our wedding ceremony.  Poor guy! I'm glad they're finally taking it out, even if it means he will be out of commission for the first couple of weeks that we are finally together. 

He looks excited, haha. 

Day 1

The time has come! Yesterday (May 26th), we began our trek to Texas. We spent the evening of the 25th putting all of my stuff together so we could pack the car. I had a lot more stuff than I realized!  It all worked out, though. We were able to pack the car like Tetris with everything but our 2 duffle bags and the cat. I picked up sedation from the vet for Jack so he wouldn't stress out on the road. They worked pretty well, he basically looked/acted drunk all day, haha. 

We drove down I40 to the Tail of the Dragon so I could show Preston the mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee. They were breathtaking. We decided that we wanted to live somewhere like that eventually. The Tail of the Dragon is a super windy 11 mile stretch of road that lots of motorcycles like to ride.  It was awesome.  It only added about an hour to our trip so it wasn't entirely out of the way.  We stopped for pictures on the NC side and on the TN side. I wish my iPhone did these views justice. 

Sweet Carolina

Beautiful Tennessee

Those flowers were at the top of a hill overlooking that lake. Makes you feel reeeaalllll small and obsolete standing up there. 

Our end goal for day 1 was Nashville, or actually right outside of Nashville in a town called Old Hickory.  There is a lake with a houseboat out there that we rented for the evening through AirBNB.com (love this website! We've used it before to stay near Eglin AFB in Florida).  The houseboat was awesome. Very homey and comfortable! We ate dinner at a restaurant named Sam's that is on the lake, we just had to walk down the dock to get there. 

We sat on the top deck of the houseboat in the evening after we met the gentleman who owns it.  I took a picture of the sunset with Preston's phone but once again, no justice was done. The colors were phenomenal. 

The ONLY downside to the houseboat was all of our neighbors having 8 legs and basically mexi-packing every corner of the dock and boat. Otherwise it was a great experience! 

Day 2 consists of the rest of TN, all of Arkansas, and into Texas. I'll post more later about the rest of our trip! 

Forever and Ever, Amen!

So Preston and I decided in December that we wanted to get married.  (Well, if we're being technical - I've known for at least a year.  He took a little longer to figure it out).  We spent many nights over Christmas break looking at Pinterest for ideas and colors and themes, only to decide a little later that we would have a courthouse wedding in March and have a ceremony (read: party) later on.  If anyone tells you how stressful wedding planning is, they aren't lying.  What a headache.  Between everyone's opinions and what we could actually pull off - I was ready to quit and just go grab a hobo off the street and feed him in exchange for a witness signature.  

We decided that our ceremony would be short and sweet, no vows, no wedding party.  Just he and I on the steps of the courthouse with our families present to witness.  We had food that we half made/half purchased back at Preston's parent's house where the rest of his family was able to join us in celebration.  It was a really awesome day.  Everything was executed beautifully (minus my macaroni and cheese debacle that Ryan was put in charge of fixing).  

I did my own makeup and Lura helped me with my hair;

 the cake turned out beautiful (as did the cupcakes - not pictured);

and everything was delicious. 

Preston slow-cooked pork in the crock pot and smoked brisket out front all day before the wedding.  I baked our cake and his mom and sister picked up the cupcakes while he and I met with the officiant (who is his brother-in-law's grandfather).  My parents came and met everyone, and I was really happy to have them there.  

Our ceremony (read: definitely a party) is May 24th (this weekend on Sunday) and I'm really excited for how everything is turning out.  Still a very stressful event to plan, and I'm kind of beating myself up over planning TWO weddings in my last semester of nursing school - but now that THAT is over, I have plenty of time this week to finish last minute errands before Preston gets here on Friday.  No more 3 month hiatuses (hiati?) between visits for us! This is it! The big move is next week. :)  Our plan is to stop in Nashville and then keep on trucking down the interstate on day 2 so we can get to Texas in time for Preston to have a minor surgical procedure at the end of next week.  This is the busiest month I think I've ever had.  

Here are a few pictures from the wedding :)

Love this man :)

Waiting for his bride to walk up the stairs :)

I now pronounce you man and wife!

Porter and that contagious smile!

Ryan and Benson

Grandma and Porter giving a thumbs-up

I was definitely blessed with some beautiful and wonderful new sisters

Mr. & Mrs. Rushton

On August 3rd, 2013 my life changed for the better.  March 7th, 2015 is when our fairy tale began.  Stay tuned for updates from our #HappilyEverRushton!