Merry Christmas!

and Happy New Year!

I haven't had a lot to blog about as of late. I'm not crafting very much (since my craft room consists of boxes), and haven't really been cooking anything fancy. Although I did make some candies for Christmas, that turned out heavenly, if I do say so myself! I didn't have my camera out though so no pictures of that.

Last week, I was supposed to work Christmas Eve night shift from 7pm to 7am. I was dreading it. I had worked on Tuesday during the day and looked to see when the last time everyone had had time off. I was the next one up for time off of all the people working Christmas Eve night shift. (we keep track of when we are given time off, so that time off is first offered to the person who hasn't had time off most recently). Since it was a holiday and most of our patients have scheduled surgeries, our beds were pretty empty. At one point our census was 9 patients and we have 28 beds available. I got a phone call at 5pm from work on Christmas Eve, and they put me on Standby for the first 4 hours. I had just finished making a cheesecake, and after receiving the phone call, I decided to make some toffee (the recipe link is one I found by reading the blogs that Kayleen reads. Yes, I'm that nosy. And yes, I enjoy reading most of blogs I find on Kayleen's page.) It turned out super. I followed the recipe to the nose, and though it took forever, it came out perfectly. I remember asking myself why I wanted to make it, I kept switching from my left to right hands, and almost enlisted the help of my husband. The only tip I would add is to use something bigger than a spoon. I chose a metal spatula, and it was perfect. I was able to scrape the entire bottom of the pot without difficulty.

After making the toffee I was inspired to attempt a caramel recipe I found in my Taste of Home magazine. They are Pecan Caramels. After running to the store for some last minute items, and to my parents house to borrow their candy thermometer, I was set. It was less work stirring the caramels because once you hit a certain point you are supposed to stop stirring, and just let it boil. Well I used much too small of a pan, though I thought the recipe told me to use the size I had, to the point where it began to boil over. I quickly dipped a small coffee cup in to remove enough of the syrup so that it wouldn't make as big of a mess. (I still have a burnt ring on that particular burner though. I need a razor blade to scrape it off of my glass top stove...) The caramels also turned out perfectly. The recipe called for 2 pounds of chopped pecans, which I cut in half, and they still tasted awesome. I cannot imagine putting 2 pounds of pecans in them.

Starting on Sunday I began to feel miserable. I had a sore throat, headache, malaise, fatigue and some very slight nausea which led to decreased appetite. I also had a temperature I'm pretty sure, but our thermometer is packed still, so I have no fact to base that on. On Monday I set my alarm early to gauge how I was feeling, and thought I felt better. So I got up later to shower. After my shower, however I felt worse, so I called in sick to work. Tuesday I still felt tired, weak and thought it would be best if I didn't go to work. Then on Wednesday I went to work with a slight cough. I wore a mask all day long, and by the end of the day (it was an awful day) I felt worse than I had prior to work.

Jamaal and I had planned to go to Portland for New Year's Eve with a few of his/our friends. We were going to go on The Party Bus, a bus that takes you to several different bars and the whole point is to be pretty drunk the whole time and have fun. Well on Wednesday I was starting to have reservations. I didn't feel like drinking, and I didn't feel 100% well either. You aren't allowed to sleep, or puke on the bus, and if you do either of those things you get kicked off. I didn't know if I'd be able to stay up until the bus was done. I also didn't want Jamaal to have a lousy time because I wasn't up to participating.

Then on Thursday, I woke up to no voice. I didn't feel much better, in fact just a little worse than I had on Wednesday morning. I told Jamaal I wasn't going to go.

Jamaal was able to ask his brother, who didn't have plans, and they all had a really good time. I was glad that they were able to party it up without feeling guilty.

The girls and I went to my parents house and spent the night with them. We watched Twilight and Four Christmases and relaxed. I received sweet texts from my drunk hubby until his phone died. Since Joe, Bret and Lamar are all single he was trying to help "hook them up" and I kept getting updates about their progress. In the end all three of them ended up kissing a girl, but Jamaal didn't know. He sucks at being cupid, and keeping me up to date on the gossip. ;) But he was very good at saying that the girls weren't his type and that they were not me. (I'll post about something sweet he did before Christmas, once I get around to taking pictures...)

Today I still have very little voice, but now my nose is stuffy/runny. I tossed and turned all night long and dreamt of shopping with Stevie, and only fleetingly Jessie, Kayleen, Kristina and Sarah. It had something to do with everyone else didn't want to be around my sickness.

Tomorrow Jamaal and I will be taking my parents to Avatar in 3-D possibly in IMAX as well. Jamaal and I saw it regular, and have heard its even better in 3-D. We owe my parents a movie for Mother's Day and Father's Day 2009, and I think they'll like Avatar.