FREEDOM!

Until May 27th that is (when I start my psychiatric nursing class). BUT i'll take it!!! I passed my last and final OB and pediatric class. It definitely wasn't one of my favorites, but it was interesting nonetheless. Now i'm afraid all of my future children will catch some of those nasty, awful diseases out there. Hello future helicopter mom!

I can still feel Monday's workout. It went a little something like this...

IT was a TABBATA workout. Anyone that has done a Tabbata workout will tell you, its hell.

Warm up 3 minutes of squats and squat jumps. I hate jumping. Hate it. I guess my knees just really hate me. I was so sore after this the rest of my workout definitely took a hit.

We first did weighted Sumo squats for 30 seconds X 8 rounds. We wrote down the number per round we accomplished during the 20 seconds of rest. OH BOY. 20 seconds of rest did nothing for this girl. NOTHING.

Leg raises X 57(this was my magic number from total sumo squats after 8 rounds).

Supermans X 57.

Russian ball twist for 3 minutes.

There was this one workout where we heaved a ball of different weights to our partners for 3 minutes.

Planks for it seemed like 4908387 minutes.

I have a long way to go. However, every time I go to boot camp I get a little stronger everyday. This is my true freedom.

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Has anyone ever done a boot camp before?!

Do you feel like you're getting stronger?

So my Sunday went like this.

Yes. It was a pool day. Thank you Charleston, for your wonderful 86 degree weather! I couldn't even resist the weather today, I just had to be outside. The weather this next week, will be back to rainy! A girl has to get her vitamin D somehow!

Just in case you were wondering, I was studying cardiac defects by the pool, every nursing student has done this at least ONCE. I am very lucky I have a great apartment complex that always has a fantastic pool, always clean.  

Oh I could have sat by the pool ALLL DAY. My sunglasses are a bit on the large side, BUT I will not be getting those crow's feet this early. According to my mother, "you better not even think about walking outside with out moisturizing, or it will look like crows been walking all across your face!"-my mom. Thanks, Mom. I'll never forget (most of the time).  Hopefully, my genetics are very kind to me, because i've been bathing in the sun for a LONG TIME. 

But by 2:30pm I was burnt. Hello base suntan/sunburn. I'm also learning about burns too (of course). No matter how much sunscreen I was putting on by this point. I was still burnt. I can't believe i'm in to taking selfies. OMG. Who knows where this habit will take me. I promise to not be one of those people who take a habitual selfies. PROMISE. 

So here's the rest of the day... Clearly pretty much the same. Just studying in my old location in front of the TV. We will see how much more I get done today... 

Now there's a cat involved.... 

I wish I could just cuddle him forever.

My fitness goal for this next week is to go to boot camp both days (Monday and Wednesday) and take a spin class (Thursday). I love spin classes but they are NEVER at the time I need them to be. I have big ambitions this week, people. BIG.

Since I have caught up with Revenge (new episode tonight!), I gotta look up another show... Any thoughts?!

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Was there nice weather where you are?

Do you have any fitness goals for the week?!

Have you ever tried a spin class?

Y'all i'm a lucky girl.

This guy is missed so incredibly much.

You might wonder why I don't talk about him very much in my daily life. Well unfortunately he's not around, but I will hopefully see him soon, so we can enjoy the rest of the summer together! Deployments are not our favorite, but after spending 6.5 years long distance, I think I can handle it!

Yes, Gizmo likes to FaceTime with Matt too

Matt sent me a couple of things to let me know that i'm still special. He sent me tons of K-cups. TONS. I'm obsessed with my Keurig. OBSESSED. Also the movie set of HUNGER GAMES and CATCHING FIRE! Y'all know what i'm doing after the final! 

I would just like to take a minute to say how much I appreciate this guy. He puts up with all my mood swings, meltdowns, and crazy nursing school antics and loves me anyways. Y'all i'm a lucky girl. 

It's little things like this that get me through the rough times. 

What the rest of my weekend is consisting of..... 

• Revenge, of course, I'm almost caught up people and Sunday is the new episode! 

•  Studying my tail off to make sure this final and class is behind me! (this should be first, i'm aware.)
• Waiting for desperately for Tuesday to get here (day of the final)!!!

•  Hanging out with the cats. 

Enjoy the weekend! It's finally here!!!!!

To all the men and women out there serving our country: Thank you and please know you are missed everyday. 

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Do you have a favorite Hunger games series book?!

What are you doing this weekend?

I'm on the hunt!

For a new half marathon... Yes, the Disney run is FULL. It was literally less than 12 hours and FULL! Apparently people are waiting by the computers to sign up! Well rookie mistake on my part. I will know better next time and be more prepared. This runner thing is serious.

Here's what the week has been like for me. It doesn't look like a whole lot, but my goodness, any week I have a test, it's hell.

Monday: Cramming like crazy for my test!

Tuesday: Test done! Punched it in the face by the way!

Wednesday: Clinical/presentation/BOOT CAMP (yes, I finally went, the first time since eating gravel!)

Thursday: 30 minutes on the treadmill and LOTS OF FOAM ROLLING.

I'm in lactic acid hell. Everything is hurting today. It's absolutely awful to foam roll IT bands. MY GOODNESS. I've been drinking TONS of water today. Goal: keep up these workouts to avoid so much lactic acid build up at a time.

Look what I made today: Shrimp Quinoa salad, I'll post the recipe later!

I'm taking off the rest of the day to chill out. No books, not looking at any notes either! I'll start back up tomorrow, got to gear up for the final on Tuesday! Everyone have an awesome rest of the week, its almost the weekend!!! 

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How do you deal with soreness after a workout? Any remedies?

Any of your favorite half/full marathons, that I should try?

There's only 259 days left!!!

So apparently Disney has this thing called, "Run Disney", they hold a 5k, 10k, half marathon, and a FULL marathon. WOAH DISNEY, WOAH. You can read all about it here! 

My husband, Matt, said that once he saw that Disney had a marathon, he knew he wanted to do it. So that definitely got me thinking... Could I do one?! I've never considered myself a runner at all, but I enjoy running, and I think I could really get into it. I've done a color run and the famous Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, but never actually considered a half marathon. Plus, if I do the half marathon, Matt promised we could do Disney for a few days!!! OMGoodness. Y'all have no idea. I've wanted to go to Disney my whole life and I definitely want to go before I have kiddos (sorry, but not sorry, I do want to experience it like a big kid first!!) Even better, I won't be in school and won't have to worry about school work and clinicals, because I (god willing) will be a RN!

So... now the fun begins, training and a big learning experience. I definitely want to train for it. I don't want to have any crazy injuries that would prevent me from being the most awesome nurse ever. I also have a lot to learn, like listening to my body, nutrition, and  knowing when to push myself. I'm now researching the best training guides to help ease myself into running better and more efficiently. 

I better sign up soon, only 259 days until RUN DISNEY!

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All you runners out there, where did you look first when training for a race/run?

Any great reliable sources for runner nutrition?

Your Texan girl needs some help! 

The more you know..

Since i've started this blog there's a lot of things you don't know about me. SO I'll let you know some randoms about this Texan girl.

1. My middle name is Gail.. Yes, my mother is very southern and gave me my grandma's first name.

2. My hometown is College Station, Tx. Home of Texas A&M. Yes, I love Johnny Football. If you don't well... I'm sorry. Haters gonna hate. I'm actually very proud of my hometown, and have yet to find a place like it.

3. My favorite color is RED. My mother never let me wear red when I was younger, because she thought that red was a risqué color and I was not risqué. People. I wear red EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  It's either my toenail polish, underwear, socks, SOMETHING! 

4. I'm a red wine drinker. LOVE. A favorite red of mine is Alamos malbec.  

5. Frasier is one of my all time favorite shows. It's so delightfully sarcastic. 

6. My favorite beer is Shiner Bock. Hands down. 

7. My heaven on earth is a little place called Camp Creek. It's tucked away in Robertson county, TX. It's where I find myself most at peace. Somehow it always welcomes me back when I'm away. There's no way this picture does it justice. 

8. My favorite ice cream is Blue Bell cookies and cream. I could eat this all day every day. ERRY DAY.

9. The song Matt and I danced to at our wedding was At Last by Etta James. 

10. I played the flute for 12 years. I was also in the marching band. YES. Crazy enough my husband was in the same marching band, he played the trumpet. 

11. I initially wanted to become a prosecuting attorney out of high school and had ever intention of going to law school. 

12. My favorite flower is a star gazer lily. My bouquet at my wedding was stargazer lilies. 

13. I love thunderstorms. I could listen to them every night before I go to bed. 

14. My favorite food is MEXICAN food. My goodness. My little texan heart could eat Mexican food for months on end. Chips and salsa are always a staple in my house. 

15. I have tons of friends, however I only have three friends that I can count on the most. 

16. I have a brother and sister. They are both crazy and I love them so much. 

17.  I got married at the Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado Springs, CO. I fell in love with this church the very first time I stepped foot in it. It really is an incredible place that I feel honored to be married in. 

18. Although, I love Texas, I have found one other place that I would adore to be as well. Colorado Springs. OMGoodness. That place is so beautiful. Perfect weather (most of the time). Mountains. Lakes. I just love what the mountain air does to my hair too.  

19. I love Toms. I could wear those for the rest of my life and be completely content. I only have the red and olive ones, but as soon as I acquire a job in the real world I'll be purchasing more. Much more. 

20. This is my least favorite age. I didn't like myself at this age and never really felt like I was me. 

21. I LOVE SALES. I really never buy anything unless it's on sale. I feel guilty if I do, I guess its because I've been a poor college student for years. Weird I know. It has to be something really special for me to buy it full price. 

22. I want 4 children. Yes. I better get busy because my 26 year old ovaries aren't getting any younger. 

23. I love all kinds of music. There really isn't anything that I don't like. If I had to choose favorites, it would be between Texas country (duh.) and 90's music (grunge, pop, anything 90's). I love that pandora exists for this very reason. 

24. My closest confidant was my godfather. He helped me find the special comfort that Camp Creek gives me. I miss him everyday. 

25. My favorite thing to do is laugh. If something makes me laugh, I'll probably love it forever. Thats one of my husband's best qualities, his humor. 

26. Last but not least, this is my favorite age. I have never been more sure of myself at this age and I feel that this is who I really am. It's a good feeling. 

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Any weird quirks you have?!

What is your favorite age?

Where is your heaven on earth?

Everything about this post is my life.

I know, I know.. Anyone who reads this is like, "damn, that girl needs a life". Yes. Yes, I do.

If you were ever wondering what a nursing student thinks or FEELS... This post pretty much sums it up.


 This is so true on SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS.

Clearly, you'd be forgetting something..

These kind of questions should be illegal. 

How I feel after passing a huge test, there is always more than one right answer. May the odds be ever in your favor!

I think farts and poop are hilarious. I can't tell you how much I cringe when I hear this in a patient's room. I laugh myself silly inside. Hey, if you can laugh at your job and yourself, you can't possibly be having a good time. 

YALL. I can't tell you how true this is. Before a cardiac test, I dreamt about the word "veramapil". What kind of crazy person dreams about calcium channel blockers?!? ME. I'm the crazy.  

These are some fighting words people... 

You have no idea how many times i've felt this way. 

EVERY TIME. 

When does anyone have time to sleep?! A snooze button IS completely irrelevant these days. 

Funny for all the people that LOVE the keep calm shirts. This is my favorite. LOL. 

This right here gets me through the rough times. If I could communicate in memes all day long I would. ALL DAY. To me they never get old. 

After saying all this about going to nursing school, I can still say it's one of the best decisions I ever made. It's my labor of love! 

Happy Caturday people! 

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Anybody in a nursing program out there?!

OR 

In a professional program?!

Foodie Friday!

Ok. So i'm completely obsessed with Tomato Basil soup. Not just any Tomato Basil soup, but La Madeleine's tomato basil soup. It's creamy, its wonderful and filled with everything my mouth loves to taste. Except for the 270 calories for a cup or 540 calories for a bowl.  My body doesn't like that.

My goodness. No, i'm definitely not a calorie counter, but I am conscious of what I should eat.  I've come up with a recipe that is much better than some of the other copy cat versions out there.

I'm also one of those salt sensitive people out there. If there is a soup thats yummy and tasty, i'll probably bloat up for days. So I always try to cut as much salt as I can without recipes tasting bland. OH life is way to short to eat bland food!!!

Also, with this soup I love eating bread. Sourdough bread and Italian 5 grain are my favorites from Publix.  I know, I know carbs are pretty much the devil these days, but I do believe everything in moderation and your body does need carbs to survive!



A Lighter Version of "La Madeleine's" Tomato Basil soup. 

Serves 6 hungry people

1.5 cups (127 cal) per serving 

Ingredients:

• Two 32 oz cans of crushed tomatoes 
• 1 cup of fat free half and half
• 2 tbs light butter 
• 1/4 cup of fresh basil 
• 2 tsps of minced garlic
• 1/2 tbs Garlic Salt (cut in half if salt sensitive)
• 1/2 tbs Onion Powder
• Cracked pepper, as needed

First, grab a pot and melt the butter on medium heat. Next, sauté minced garlic in butter, just until fragrant. Add in your two big cans of crushed tomatoes. You can really use as much tomatoes as you want and you can even use the fresh ones, if you have time. Wait about 15 minutes until the crushed tomatoes are warmed through. This could splatter. Don't be a splatter victim and add a lid and stir often. In the meantime, chop up your basil. Set aside. 

Next, grab your warm crushed tomato mixture and put them in a blender or use a hand-held blender and blend in the basil in small batches. Just blend until you see that the basil is at the consistency you need. I usually have to do this in batches because my blender isn't big enough... (hint, hint, I need a new blender... ha!)

Put everything back in the pot and add the fat free half and half, put on medium/low heat. This will take a few minutes to reheat and don't forget to add the garlic salt, onion powder and cracked pepper. 

Attention salt sensitive people! Sometimes, the soup doesn't need as much salt, it really just depends on the brand of tomatoes you buy. 

With this recipe being only 127 calories per serving, you could definitely have some nice bread. I'm all about carbs these days. 

I got the nutrition facts from myfitnesspal, where I manually input the recipe! 

Nutrition Facts
Servings 6.0
Amount Per Serving
Calories 127
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 2 g	4 %
Saturated Fat 1 g	5 %
Monounsaturated Fat 1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 4 g	1 %
Sodium 871 mg	36 %
Potassium 102 mg	3 %
Total Carbohydrate 24g	8 %
Dietary Fiber 5 g	20 %
Sugars 12 g
Protein 4 g	7 %
Vitamin A	1 %
Vitamin C	11 %
Calcium	2 %
Iron	90 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

Hope you are eating well this weekend!!! 

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Any other favorite copy cat recipes out there?!

Thursday Thoughts

Thursdays have become one of my favorite days of the week. I don't know if its the fact that its that much closer to the weekend, or it actually feels like the Friday! Anywho, here's some randoms for this week!

1. THIS. Just watch it. It's pretty much made my week. Even if you're not a cat lover, it's pretty great. 

2. There is no way I should be doing anything, but studying right now. However, I find myself here. I find anything and everything else do to but study right when I need to... at least my test isn't until Tuesday! Procrastinators unite... tomorrow. 

3. I haven't worked out since my fall out on monday... So I think I'm going to try to run tomorrow. My running goal this year was 1000 miles. I'm at 135 miles. and it's April. I think it'll be a big fail, but we shall see. Maybe the motivation will kick in.. 

4. BRUNCH. OMGoodness. Charleston has some of the best brunch places! If you find yourself here try the Early Bird Diner. They have the signature fried chicken and waffles plate. The chicken is as big as your face. My husband gets this every time we go. I will be in attendance this weekend. 

5. I miss home this week. I don't get homesick that often, but in the spring we have bluebonnets. Seeing all the pictures of bluebonnets on everyone's Facebook makes me miss it all the more. OH and BBQ. Texan BBQ. There is something about everyone else's that just doesn't measure up. Sorry SC, but not sorry. 

6. I'm really ready to get to the beach. This one that South Carolina wins, hands down. The beaches here are so gorgeous, all of them are so clean and well kept. Texas could take a few pointers... This summer will be my last one in Charleston. I intend to make the most of it! Can you say lots of beach time?! 

7. I'm ready for this deployment to be over. Period. The cats can only entertain me so much. 

8. What are people getting their mom's for mother's day?! I swear i've gotten my mom the same gift for 6 years in a row. I didn't even know the UK already had their mother's day! It was March 30th! How American of me to think all Mother's day was the same day everywhere. The more you know. 

9. Has anyone ever gone crabbing?! I didn't even know you catch your own crabs. I'm talking about actual crustaceans. (lol) Apparently, people can catch them with nets and with BACON. After learning that you can attract crabs with bacon, I was definitely more interested in going crabbing. If you must know I have a crazy love for bacon. You can also use chicken necks. I'm sticking with bacon. 

10. Anyone who reads this blog, must know that one of my all time favorite shows is New Girl. I can't help it. My husband and I love this show. Unfortunately for me,  I promised my husband that when he comes home from his deployment, we would watch the next season together. So I must wait.  WHY I DO THIS TO MYSELF??  I DON'T KNOW. UGH! Anyone who watches knows that Nick Miller does in fact look like Grumpy Cat.  

And this concludes Thursday's thoughts. 

Happy almost Friday people. You're almost there. 

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What is your go-to show?

Do you have a favorite brunch spot in your area?

Any other favorite beaches out there?!

I ate gravel.

Yes. You read that right.

Every monday and wednesday, I go to a boot camp. We do a lot of different exercises that include high intensity cardio as well as body sculpting. Well I wasn't able to write about this yesterday, but I ate the gravel. ATE IT.

I wasn't wearing the shoes that I normally wear, which are the Brooks Pureflows. I was wearing my Nike frees, which I never knew I had any issues with.. until I was warming up today by running and BAM! My feet got tangled up and I was down for the count. I'm not gonna lie, the first place I checked were my teeth, as long as those babies were ok, I knew i'd be fine! Yes, I realize that is completely vain but I'm soooo close to having the perfect teeth!!!

Here are some pictures of my battle wounds... Im only really showing you one real one, because the other one is a little graphic.There was definitely a flap of skin missing on the other one. Don't you worry one bit, this nursing student had it in the bag! ha! I'm also considering my FAVORITE pants part of the battle wounds too, I was so upset about them. You know you find love when you find the perfect pants that don't creep and always stay where you need them to. They are some off brand deal that I got off Groupon, I will be mourning their loss.

This is actually a baseball size now. I've iced it for a good hour and taken ibuprofen.. so hopefully this will magically get better before clinical.. Yeah. Right. Yes, there was a little cat right there making sure I was ok... not meowing at me because there was a scant amount of food in the bowl.

Then there was the aftermath of, "OMG are you ok?!" "Are you sure? you should just sit down for a minute!", but there was no way in hell I was quitting. Not trying to be stoic, just trying to not come up any excuses to not workout. SO yes, I licked (not actually, lol) my wounds and kept going. I was going to finish the damn workout. 

I am tough as nails (most of the time). So of course in this workout we were doing TONS OF SQUATS and tons of things that required me to kneel on my knees... isn't that how it always goes?! I promise I will take a picture of the white board next time with the workout on it. It's really great and I always feel like I get the best workout with these ladies. 

Workout peeps stay safe! Always wear the right shoes!

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What do you do to stay motivated?

Have you ever fell out during a work out?  Did you keep going?!

Did you have any crazy injuries from working out?!