Chicken (or Turkey) Tortilla Soup

Okay, so I've really been a bad blogger.  BUT, in my defense I have finished school (for now) and am waiting to take my boards (NCLEX) so I can be a "real" nurse.  Right now, I'm just a pseudo-nurse.  Haha.  Well, I've been SUPER busy this last few weeks, but here's a couple pictures from my pinning ceremony:

This is my husband putting my nursing pin on me.

This is one of my best friends from nursing school, without her, I think I would have pulled out all of my hair.

My sweet husband, and myself after the pinning.  Can you see the relief on his face??

So, since I have finished school, and am now free on Monday nights (until I start working), I have had ample free time.  I roasted a 15 lb turkey last week...it was in my freezer and needed to be eaten.  Actually it was on the back deck and then needed to defrost in my fridge and then be roasted, but thats neither here nor there.  I have 15 lbs of turkey (well, I guess its really like 8 or so pounds).  One of my other friends from school called me and wanted to hang out tonight.  She suggested I make chicken tortilla soup, and gave me the recipe.  I made some alterations to the plan, so this is what I made:

2 cans of chicken broth

1 can green enchilada sauce

1 can red enchilada sauce

1 can rotel

1 can fiesta corn

1 small can green chilies

2 blocks cream cheese

shredded cheddar (about 1.5 cups for each can of broth)

Chicken (either two cans of white breast meat in water...or TURKEY!)

That's right, I used turkey, because while I had canned chicken...the chicken is in a can, and isn't going to go bad.  I chopped up quite a bit of white meat turkey and added it to the soup. 

Basically, pour all the cans into the crockpot (I drained the corn, rotel, green chilies though), add cream cheese (in small cubes to promote meltage), and shredded cheese (I had pre-shredded on hand).  Then, I let it sit on "High" for about 2-3 hours, or until it is hot and bubbly good.  I guess you could cook it on low all day, and if you like more spice, add more spice-by all means.  This was plenty spicy for me though. 

That was dinner, and it was good.  I followed it up with some gooey butter cookies.

Now, for something else exciting-my niece is due in about 6-8 weeks (I think it will be 6 weeks, but the official due date is 8 weeks)...I have a HUGE surprise I get to blog about, and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!!

Thanks for stopping by! 

P.S. I'm linking up to:

 

Lamp Shade

So, if anyone has read through some of my posts you know that I've had this ongoing war with a lamp in my living room.

Here is the lamp, and my brother-in-law...

First I painted it white, and I loved it.

Do you see it in the corner? 

Please note there is no lampshade.  There hasn't been a lamp shade since I painted it.  I wanted something barrel-shaped and burlap.  So I've been looking.  I've tried to make some even.  It has never gone right.  I end up burning my fingers and getting mad and scraping the whole idea.  So there this lamp set in the corner with no shade.  Until...

It broke.

That's right.  It broke.  I don't know what happened to it.  I went to pick it up and it fell apart in my hands.  Upon further inspection--it was REALLY broke.  I have sent it to the garage for my dear husband to fix. :)  So, instead I brought up this lamp I had in the garage where I had painted and rewired it and it was waiting to go into the basement.  It also needed a lamp shade.  Desperate I bought a $10 shade at the store, but it was way too small...

So I left it because we had company coming over and I didn't really have a choice.  This week I was in my local goodwill, and I saw it.  As soon as I walked in I saw it.  From all the way across the store-there it was.  A HUGE barrel shade.  I kind of ran (seriously) over to it, and grabbed it.  $1.50! Even better.  I took my prize home.  I was so proud of myself and so excited I forgot to take pictures of it before.  I got home and ran down to the basement and immediately covered it in burlap and glued it down and put it on the lamp.  

Here is the finished product, please don't judge my endtable, it belonged to the inlaws, and I'd like to refinish it. or paint it. But doesn't my lamp look soooo much better????

And a couple other things...I'm in my last semester of nursing, and I had a study session yesterday.  I was completely fried by the time I got home and so I lay down on the sofa to watch some TV with my darling Belle.  She took the remote.  I guess it was too much TLC for her.

And lastly, I'd like to introduce you all to my baby niece.  She is due in February.  We just found out it is a girl.  Here is her latest picture-and yes, she is staring right at us.

That's all for now.  I have a test tomorrow so, I probably should go study some more. :)

Thanks! 

Stethoscope

So, as I have mentioned previously, I am a nursing student.  One of the most important tools I keep in my uniform (I will NOT share a picture-its horrible) is my stethoscope.  It is handy to keep it around my neck because it is accessible there, but the oils from your skin can break down the rubber and ruin your stethoscope...and they are not cheap.  Some of the nurses have these cool covers that are fun colors and keep the rubber safe.

One of my girlfriends gave me a TON of fabric, so I decided I was going to make one of these covers for my stethoscope.  I have a basic idea of this is going to work-so bear with me.  First thing I did is I picked out a fabric.  I used a drapery weight because I liked the pattern...I picked it out of this stack:

So I took the fabric, and found online that I needed a piece that was 36x6 inches.  The one I had was 28 x 12.  So I took my stethoscope and measured:

The key is to have the bell out, and the ear pieces out, so once I hem things up, it leaves a good amount.  So, I sewed.

When sewing, if you use pins, do NOT point them toward the machine, you WILL stick yourself...it will hurt, and you may bleed.  Fair warning.  I will be completely honest, I have played with this three times now.  The first time I sew the long end then added the elastic to one end and hemmed the other-then the second time, I did the elastic first and then the long end.  Really, I don't know what the best way to do this is-but the moral of the story is try it out and figure out what works best for you....

Also, its important to add a snap or velcro to the top end to keep things from sliding down toward the bell.  But this is my cover, and I'm very excited about it and am making a couple more for my friends at school!  One last photo of the pretty fabric-it matches our uniforms.

I hope you enjoyed this short tutorial-




p.s. I'm linking up to:


Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Things are going....

So, I feel really bad for neglecting my blog.  It is something I really enjoy, and reading everyone else's....  The problem is, I was in school over the summer.  13 hours.  Microbiology and Nursing 3 (OB/Peds).  I'm wore out.  I did however manage to score Bs in both classes and an A in my micro lab.  That is fine.  My final in nursing was last Wednesday, my last clinical was Friday...AFTER the final, and I started my final semester of my ADN program Monday.  So I have class two days a week, a clinical on a third, and because I'm a loser and have to remain full-time, I started my first BSN class.  "Intro to Professional Nursing."  It has 5 more books in addition to the 10 I already have for Nursing 4 (which is advanced care/medsurg in case anyone was dying to know).  Basically, I am exhausted.  I haven't done anything around the house, my sweet husband has been cleaning it....

Good news is, this weekend since it has finally cooled down to a reasonable temperature, that sweet husband and I are going to remodel the deck somewhat.  I honestly am not sure how this is going to go.  My mother-in-law is giving/selling us her thermaspa hot tub.  Its a 6 person $13000 (new) hottub.  So, our poor deck isn't up to the task of holding an additional 700lbs (plus the weight of the water).  We are going reinforce and rebuild part of it to make the space we have more efficient.  I will post pictures of before and after when we are done.  I'm really hoping to get it mostly completed this weekend.

I think that is about it for now.  My lovely mother had a post she wrote for me to put here to update everyone, but I decided I had a spare couple minutes while my peach cobbler was in the crock pot and sweet husband was still asleep.  Maybe I should repost my cobbler ... let me see how it turns out first.  I will say the peaches I bought at the farmers market were soooooo delicious.


I hope everyone is having a great day, I'll let you know how the cobbler comes out!

Hiatus

I apologize for the hiatus.  We had a tragedy in our community (see previous post -and if you've seen it, I've added a video on there as well), and then I had finals, then I got sick, then I started a new semester in nursing...blah blah blah.  SO-I apologize for being gone for a month.  :)  I do have a project.  Of sorts.  I have been on this mirror kick because our house is circa 1980s, and has about 1 window per room--and is a very closed floor plan.  The plan is that the mirrors will help lighten things up some-you know, reflecting light and the whole gig.  :) We have a hallway that I've been wanting to place a mirror on for the longest time.  The hallway is very closed, no natural light, and the light that's there is kinda wimpy (its on the list of lights to be replaced).  Here it is:

I found the double matching mirrors on craigslist:

Well, I decided I didn't like them.  So I took them apart.  My friend bought a HUGE mirror at the peddler's mall, but she only wanted the mirror, so I took the frame.  It was the kind of mirror that goes on the back of a dresser.  Well, my wonderful hubby helped me cut the frame down to the size of the mirror and put it back together.  I honestly thought I had more pictures, but I guess not.  Oh well.  Here is the finished product:

Here it is with the mirror and the nice paint.  It is the same paint as the trim, kitchen cabinets, and chairs.  I just keep reusing it. :) I have now placed this mirror at the end of the hallway!  I like it because it helps brighten the hall, but also serves as a full-er length mirror.

Well, that's all I have right now.  I'm working on some other things, so I can't wait to share them soon!

Quick Note

So I've kind of been absent this past week.  I'm finishing up my last weeks of my psych rotation, I had a nursing test today (yeah I had one like 2 weeks ago or something), I have an A&P lab test Wednesday and I haven't even scratched the surface on finals.  I have a post in the works about 1) a mirror hubby and I made together, and 2) my one year anniversary was Sunday (4.25).  Hubby was amazing as usual and bought me 4 doz roses and a box of chocolates...plus one other surprise! I love him!

I promise I will have my post up--like tomorrow. :)

Thanks!

Nursing Clipboard

Some of you may know-or most may know, I am in nursing school.  I love it-I wish I had done it 7 years ago when I first started college.  Its wonderful and amazing.  One of the things I have to do in nursing school is a clinical rotation.  I've had two rotations of medical-surgical nursing.  In this type of setting you are dealing with a lot of very sick people, and many times, people who are alone.  It is my job to help care for them and in some cases brighten their day...just a little bit.  Nurses all carry clipboards to write down important information-vital signs, notes, reminders etc.  I finally was tired of carrying my full-sized clipboard around with me, having to set it down every time I needed to do something-and then walking off and leaving it.  Sometimes things are hectic and you just forget.  Then its lost for 10 minutes or so-well, you see where this is going.  I decided I needed a small clipboard, the half size clipboards.  The problem is they are all chipboard (AKA brown).  This not fitting with my personality.  SO I set out to change that (the clipboard-not my personality).

This is what I started with-

• clip board
• 2 pieces of scrapbook paper
• mod podge

First I removed the clip from the board.  I then used mod podge and applied the paper.  I chose to use two sheets-and I removed a small bit from each-it gave it a layered effect.  I let the mod podge dry, and reattached the clip.

This handy little clipboard now fits in my smock/scrubs. So I don't have to worry about laying it down and walking off-
This is super simple and it has been a HUGE help for me in the hospital so I stop losing stuff.

-Jess

Today I'm Linking Up To:

Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

School

So I've mentioned I am a professional student.  I like to think of this as my job...or a VERY expensive hobby.  I've basically been in school since I was about 3.  Which makes 22 years of education.  Its not too bad, I have two degrees to show for it.  I'm currently back in school working on my Associates Degree in Nursing.  My first two degrees (BS & MBA) are in business.  I hated it.  I hated the business world.  There was no fulfillment.  It was all about the bottom line.  I needed something more....  My wonderful husband suggest I get my RN since I always talked about wanting to be a nurse.  Let me tell you, I'm in my second semester, and it is HARD.  But...I LOVE IT!  It is amazing to work with so many people and have the ability to touch so many people's lives.  I really feel like this is my calling.

Right  now I am doing my Med-Surg rotation at the VA hospital here in town.  It has really been a blessing.  These patients are some of the best people I've ever met, and their families are just as great.  They have touched my life in ways I'll never forget.

So, the first bit of decoration for my living room I've worked on was a wreath.  It was given to me by my Mother-In-Law.  Its was just a plain wooden wreath-and I had it suck in the closet for almost 9 months!  I didn't know what to do with it.  I decided we need a little spring time inside, since we had 6-8 inches of snow outside at the time.  My husband took me to my favorite hobby store, and I purchased a ivy garland for $5, two birdies $2, and a spool of really pretty floral ribbon $5.  Total $12.

 

A little closer...

That's it for now.  I have a dozen other things to add this weekend though.  I don't have the opportunity to write as I would like because of class and clinicals.  

-Jess