life updates

Day Shift
I am working day shift at the hospital now. 7am-7pm. I've been on this more regular schedule since May. I enjoy having a more normal schedule, but day shift is definitely busier! I didn't realize how much extra time I sometimes had on nightshift that I used for doing various things...paying bills, blogging, answering House of Shep emails, etc. When that time was gone, I really missed it!

House of Shep
Wow, where do I even start?! The shop became much much busier around August last year.  I did about 400+ total orders in 2012. 300+ of those orders were between August and December! It has been such a blessing making pretty things for people! I love to think how a hobby turned in to a side job. The extra income helps, but it's not taking the place of any other "real" jobs right now.

Church
Chris and I are still hosting our young married small group two nights a month. We are also co-leading/hosting the college group every Thursday. We love having people in our home and using what God has blessed us with to bless others. There's not much better than having 26 college students in our small living room all worshiping together. Such a great thing. Chris is also working part time at the church doing some AV stuff, editing, etc and I'm starting back in helping with the children's ministry a few Sundays a month.

Small Business Owners
We bought a small business over the summer last year and what a ride it has been! The opportunity came for us to purchase the newspaper that Chris had worked for off and on over the past 4 years. We have learned a LOT and still have even more to learn about being business owners. Chris is his own boss, which has its benefits, but writing your own checks (or not..) is not one of them! Ha. I was even named "Business Manager." Still figuring out what that means!

Scout
Happy to report things are the same in Scout's world. No ear infections in about a year. He is such a goof ball. His latest thing is (when we aren't looking) pulling the towel down off of the towel bar and rolling around on it! I get annoyed when I find the towel on the ground, but I can't help but laugh because he looks so goofy doing it!

Blogging
I love reading back over our adventures that have been written on this blog. I'm sad to look back over the last year and have almost nothing recorded for the majority of the year. I am unapologetic about blogging infrequently, because ultimately this blog is for us. BUT, I want to make a goal to blog more, so that I can look back later and read about our lives now.

both of us watching Passion live via Chris' iPad last week

we were visiting my family the first week in January and Chris was loving on Brooklynn

one of my favorites we made for a Christmas order!

an unintended blog break

The past month has been buuuuusy! Here's a few things the Shepperds have been up to...

Driving, a LOT.

In the past month between Chris and I, we've driven to Tyler/Longview, Waco, Cypress (twice), Georgetown, Temple (twice), The Woodlands, Franklin. That's at least 1300 miles between the two of us! So we've been using our friend, GPS, a lot. :)

Also found a toll road between BCS and Georgetown that has a speed limit of 80!

I spent a week as a camp nurse at Pine Cove. I'll write more (eventually) about my time there. You may remember I did this 2 summers ago.

I spent a day at home after camp and got to love on my sweet niece! She's almost 4 months now!!

We made so much progress in the bathroom!! We finally got the granite and glass installed. This pic was after my first shower in the new amazing shower! :) More info/pics to come.

House of Shep has been keeping me busy too. This is GREAT news! :) Here are some sanitizer bottles I've been working on.

Chris hurt his knee (we think while playing his crazy long baseball game) and has been doing physical therapy to appease the doc. He tore his meniscus many years ago, had surgery and hasn't had any problems since...and this is similar pain. We are waiting for the doc to FINALLY order an MRI. We are hoping for next week!

We are playing in a summer kickball league on a team with the college small group we lead! I was at camp the first week, it got rained out last week...so tonight will be my debut. If I'm honest...I'm nervous!! haha I do NOT play sports. I'm really even sure I know HOW to play kickball. We will see!  Our team name is "That's How We Roll" and we had sweet shirts made!

Ok I'm sure there is more...but that's all I have for you today.
Happy Wednesday! :)

the one where I tried to paint the bathroom blue

On Sunday I was trying to decide between watching The Notebook or The Devil Wears Prada. Big dilemma right?

Well, I went into the guest bathroom to get some nail polish to paint my nails while I watched TV. Then I dropped the nail polish. From the height of the cabinet above the toilet. 

Yall, the bottle did not survive the fall. 

Check out the mess I made...

(btw, this picture does not even do it justice)

on the shower curtain...rugs...pile of towels...cabinet...trash can...mirror...counter...baseboard....

I could have cried.
All this happened while my husband was napping.
But what does he say when he wakes up and sees what his wife has been up to?
"You wanted to repaint anyways, didn't you?"
Haha I love that man! :)

Thankfully I bought a bottle of nail polish remover last week. But I didn't buy enough to remove nail polish in the whole bathroom! So three more bottles and several HOURS later, I fiiinally got out what I could.

Unfortunately nail polish also removes paint....so we will eventually have to repaint the wall and the baseboards...aaand replace the shower curtain, trash can and rugs.

Kids, HOLD ON TO YOUR NAIL POLISH!!!!!!!

what we've been up to

Just trying to catch up from the past week or so...

I found this sweet face smiling at me before work last week. I had about 20 minutes to finish getting ready including now giving him a bath! Apparently he found some red clay (that I didn't even know we had!) in the the backyard!

Aggie Athletics has a rewards program and you get scans with each sporting event you go to. I finally got my scan card this year and have assumed my new identity...

I've had my name spelled maaany different ways, but this is a first!

Last Wednesday we went and saw Cirque Du Soleil. It was INCREDIBLE!

One of my co-workers had a baby about a month ago so I took them dinner last week.

I found a fun use for my new washi tape (that I found at pick your plum!). Love love!

Chris plays the bass guitar at church about once a month. I just love watching him lead/worship. Love this man. :)

Speaking of Chris...

He's playing in a 49 hour Guinness World Record baseball game this weekend! It kicks off tonight at 5pm and goes until Sunday at 6pm. If you've been following a while, you'll remember he played 24hrs of flag football last year and 50 hours of kickball the year before.

The game benefits Mercy Project and ending child slavery in Ghana.

I'm off work all weekend, so I'm looking forward to hanging out at the ball park!

have you heard?

I have some not-so-big big-to-me news!

via

Instagram is coming to Android!!!!

Maybe you'd already heard this, but I just heard this week and I am soo stinkin excited.

If I'm honest...I often feel left out when people say "follow me on Instagram" or tweet/facebook their Instagram pictures. I have an awesome phone, but I can't be a part of the instagram club. But soon I won't feel left out any more!! Yesss!

TIME reports that the the app is nearing completion. It was briefly flashed at SXSW this past weekend by the co-founder. They've been working on it since last August. You can read the article here.

It says the Apple app now has 27 million registered users. It also has the highest possible average user rating of five stars across nearly 400,000 reviews. WOAH!

I knooow this is so trivial, but surely some other Android-ers will be excited with me!

Anyone???

friday's letters

Dear husband, thank you for doing the dishes this week and making me dinner before work last night. You're the bestest. :) Dear face, we aren't a teenager anymore, so please stop acting like it and make these zits go away! Dear work, thank you for not being crazy busy this week. I needed a few days to remember why I like being a nurse. Dear Scout, you are cute and you make me smile...but not when you bark while I'm sleeping. Dear weather, you're amazing. Please don't change. Dear Brooklynn, your Aunt Lei misses you. Please don't grow up yet. Dear Sunday night, I'm ready for you since I am off that night. Then I'm back to work for three more nights. Woo. Dear paycheck, thank you for making it possible for us to PAY OFF our first credit card yesterday!!! We have a ways to go with bunches of student loans...but we've got the snowball started now.

 

Linking up with Ashley...

phone photo fun

I was going to post my week in phone pictures, like the linkup is for...but then I realized I have a bajillion pictures of Brooklynn and decided I should come back with those in a separate post!

So here are my pictures from this week...minus Brooklynn!

Found these super adorable Sock Monkeys and Lambchops at Hobby Lobby 

{Pleease tell me someone reading remembers Lambchops?!}

a canvas I made with the help of my Silhouette for my sweet friend Megan

we have some color in our front flowerbed again!! we spent a lot of time making it pretty last spring and I was just sure everything died with our hot HOT dry summer! I was glad to see them come back to life this week!

my car riding buddy when I got the call Wednesday that my sister was in labor, we made the 3 1/2 hr drive together

working on another bow holder

cookie jar with freshly homemade chocolate chip cookies that my mom made. yumm and dangerous ;)

and another one of Scout :) 

passed out while I'm laying in bed working on my laptop

vinyl I made for Brooklynn's nursery. love how it turned out!

what's been going on // part two

I'm back with round two of what's been going on in the Shepperd household.

Check this out if you missed part one yesterday.

{five}

Christmas shopping

I am happy to say we are about 80% done with our Christmas shopping. This has never happened in my lifetime! It's exciting that we will be able to enjoy December without having to worry about a lot of last minute shopping. //This picture was taken while we were looking for Kaden's gift. He loves spiderman!

{six}

the sing-off

Chris and I love this show.

Our favorite group is Pentatonix.

The guy on the left, Kevin, was part of Gungor when we saw them in concert last month...so we were a little partial to them anyways, but Oh. Em. Gee. they are AWESOME. Please take a moment and listen one of the songs they did last night. Sick!

{seven}

Scout got a bath

I don't do this very often. He's very fluffy and gets matted somewhat easy. We get him groomed about every 6-8 weeks and usually I would just rather pay the extra $8 for the groomer to "de-mat" him because it's just not worth it to hold him down and brush him. He hates it. But...since we are having family over the next few nights, I decided to make him pretty handsome on my own. 

So he got a bath. AND got completely brushed out. AND we are still friends. :)

{eight}
shopping for Thanksgiving

I took a picture because Chris and I were proud of our fruits and veggies! 

I know it doesn't seem like much...but we are super picky and eat hardly any veggies. We are hosting Thanksgiving and wanted to be prepared for dinner and our guests! :)

//

So I think you should be pretty much caught up with our life! 

I'm grateful I was able to get off work for Thanksgiving but then I work Fri, Sat, Sun nights.

On that note...I'm planning a post answering the frequent questions I get about working nights. 

Do you have any specific questions about being a nurse on night shift or night shift in general???

Have a great Wednesday!