We had fun in NY. Saratoga Springs was nice and we found a beautiful park in the middle of town.

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I am so excited to have a raised garden in our backyard. Chris and I spent most of last weekend digging, building, filling, and planting. Chris did the digging, building, and filling, I did the planting. Vegetables include tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, lettuce, and bell peppers. These pictures were taken yesterday. Today I noticed the beans are starting to sprout.
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Just wrapped up the NCNP conference in Nashville. It was great. A great review and also learned a few things too. I highly recommend it to any NP to attend. My favorite speaker was Margaret Fitzgerald who talked about lab diagnoses. I love listening to her talk. When I was an NP student, I bought her CD’s to assist in studying for my NP boards and I know I learned more from her (especially about antibiotics) than I ever did in my NP program.
The hotel, Gaylord Opryland, was beautiful. The atrium is very aesthetically pleasing. There is also a huge Mills Mall next door to the hotel which is great.

Check out the pics under ‘Ode to Cats’. Our babies are so cute!!!!!

New look for my blog thanks to Chris.

Today I went to get my eyes checked and ended up wanting to try contacts again. I used to wear them for years, when I was a teenager and my early 20s. I stopped when I became a nurse and was working long shifts in the hospital. My eyes would get very dry and irritated. Also, I felt glasses provided a good barrier between my eyes and any bodily substances or fluids that I might get splashed with (ewwww). Now, however, I have a job that is 8 hours in an office setting. The chances of getting splashed with something are very rare. hehe. So, I got a sample of contacts to try for 2 weeks. We’ll see how it goes.

Our new front porch was finished about 3 weeks ago. I love it! It is really big though and needs furniture. I can’t wait to sit on it. We are going to get some rocking chairs from Cracker Barrel. Chris is going to make a few adirondak chairs also. I want it to have a “homey” look to it. Can’t wait to decorate!

I made another RR recipe this evening, Park City Cashew Chicken. It was very spicy, but great. I think it tasted like Chinese. Chris said it was “ok”, but I think it was more than ok.

This week I was so glad to be cooking again after 1 week of being away and eating out all the time. I purchased RR 365 No Repeats while away and I made a few of the recipes this week. I made Big Bird Burgers (no, not the fluffly yellow one from SS) , Nacho Bread Pizza, Salsa Stoup and Quesadillas. Overall, I think the burgers were the best, followed by the stoup and quesadillas. I recommend this book!