Summertime Beach Bum

Hello! I have some exciting news. On Friday i placed a bid on a house that is located in Waterford, CT. It is a house that a builder bought, flipped, and is now selling. WELL...i heard back about my offer on Monday. Then on Tuesday after meeting with my new job i countered again, and we went back and forth a few times, and then we both SETTLED! Now you know what this means right??? I HAVE A HOUSE! Holy Cow. I am excited, but also the thought of "what did i just do" came to mind. I know this is a wonderful thing, especially since Mark is moving down  July 14th , but it is also scary. It is a super cute, 936 sq ft home with a one car garage. There is a small private back yard. When you first walk in, there is the living room, and then one spare room. It is not technically a bed room since there is no closet. It would be perfect for a nursery...some day way in the future! Then there is a bed room, and a cute bathroom. Next is the kitchen, which is granite counters and black and

On Thursday I attended orientation at my new job. I got my picture taken, and shortly after i was handed my badge for the company. This is my first one that actually said: Lauren Quick, RN! I was so excited to finally see those two letters below my name. Looking back on these past 4.5 years, i never would have thought that i would make it to this day! Over the two hours i was there we went through paperwork and talked a lot about some things to expect. At the end i was sent home with a list of quizes to take, and my time sheet to fill out for them. I do not go back unil  Tuesday July 8th , to do more orientation, but i am so excited to really get started working as a RN. I will get a nurses bag filled with all sorts of stuff. I will also recieve a computer for all the charting i will do in the field. I hope that in time, i can move up in hours and even become a full time employee. For the month of July when its very crucial for me to make money because of the house...I will still be wo

I just finished another book. Forbidden Boy by Hailey Abbott. This story takes place at a beach where you have the locals who have lived there their entire lives in small classic "beach homes", and then the people who move in, and build these huge castles while taking away more and more public beach. The story follows Jules the main character and her father and sister, Chloe. Jules meets Remi, a cute boy from a party and instantly falls for him. However, Jules learns that Remis family is building the house next door, the same family that is trying to push Jules and her family out of their home. Jules tries to stay away from Remi, but certain circumstances proves to make this difficult. This is the sort of book that you can almost guess what will happen, but i still enjoyed reading it. This book was shorter, & i enjoyed it as a quick read. I have a few other of Abbott's titles,  although...every single title has the word 'boy' in it. So i will let everyone know

As i mentioned yesterday i was going to start a new lifestyle today of healthy eating and keeping active. So today i started by weighing myself and measuring main areas of my body. I will share all that information with you, and keep you updated along the way. I am ashamed as how big i have gotten, but there will be no shame, when each week when i update you guys, and everything is going down! So here we go: On Wednesday June 24th: Weight-235.4 lbs Belly in- 43 in Belly out- 48 in Arm- 15.5 in Leg- 29 in Bust- 45 in Strap (bra)-39 in This is the type of log that i am using to help keep track of all numbers, food intake, water intake and all fitness. Today i started off by going for a 7.16 mile bike ride. The view was beautiful right by the water! Tomorrow i might go for a ride (or try a run) and take the kayacks out. We will see! 

Something i have always enjoyed doing is writing letters. Not emails...actual letters that go through the mail. AKA snail mail :) I have had many pen pals through the years. My longest one is Ramona, she is from Austria. We have been pen pals since 2003. Then i am pen pals with Lindsey. She lives in California and we have been pen pals since 2009 when i first went off to college. I have had several others since then, but none of them which lasted for very long. However, i just found two new pen pals. One is from Nevada, and the other is Hawaii. I hope that these two will last so i can get to know more people. At home i have these very large binders where the front and back is a collage of all the envelopes from the letters i get, and the sides are stamps. Inside are tab dividers of people's names and i try to keep the letters in order in there. They are cool to look back on, however since our move i am not too sure where they ended up, so right now i am just collecting all the lett

In our new home we have this sun room that has the wood panneling. It is really a cool room, and its the only room in the house that we actually have a view of the water from. There are three walls in this room.  One wall has two small windows-which we are replacing with a giant 7ft window.  The next wall has two small windows-which is being replaced with a giant 10ft window.  The other wall, has a large wood door, and one small window on each side-which was replaced with another large 7ft window. Now that all the work has been done is is quite pretty. The room has much more air flow, since our windows slide open, it allows for tons of airflow. Below are some pitcures of during and after. This is where i am currently living in my parents house. I do have the best room in the house, minus the fact that the windows do not have shades yet. But we are working on window treatments. The windows have arrived!  Cutting out the 10ft hole in the wall... From the outside of the house on day one.

I have been searching for fun blogs to start reading. I posted about one last month that i came across:  iheartorganizing.blogspot.com Then a few weeks ago i came across another blog called: anyonecandecorate.blogspot.com . HOWEVER...I just found my favorite new blog the other night. It is:  viewalongtheway.com This blog is all about DIY projects and how they re-do rooms in their house to make it more amazing, and other resourceful articles. My two favorite articles are: how we paid off our house in 5 years, and top ten power tools for the do-it-yourselfer. One of her projects that you MUST check out are her DIY closet and laundry room. The closet she makes into a dream for any woman (and some men) out there, and the washroom, she actually teaches you how to paint over that ugly vinyl flooring. Looking at this blog got me very interested in all the other type of DIY projects, and everything around my house that i can re-purpose to look new, which ends up being much cheaper then buying

Tomorrow i meet with the home care agency that i got my first RN job with. I have no idea about what sort of things i will be doing, or the hours i will have. I know at first i will most likely have to keep my job here at the hospital because i need as much money as i can earn because of the house. But i meet with HR  tomorrow at 11:30  and stay for 2.5 hours. I guess Per Diem is paid based on visit. So ill find out more about that tomorrow. I know that for now, i need to get myself more scrubs so i can wear the proper dress code. Also tomorrow: or i am referring to it as D-Day. AKA Diet Day. Tomorrow i will be starting my healthy life style and fitness program. I do not really have anything planned out except two things: eating healthy, and staying active. Whether that means hiking, running, swimming, kayacking...anything that will keep me active, and enjoying fitness. I truley believe i would be less depressed, and less anxious if i would be able to lose weight and fit into all those

Mark was applying for a job down here in CT. Of course i want him to come down here, however he is leaving all his friends and family behind, and of course i feel bad. Last thursday he met with Big Y about a management position and they hired him on the spot! Well he found out today that they want him down here in 3 weeks! So now we are shuffeling all around trying to figure out where he can stay until we get a house. Really, it would have been a bit nicer if i would have had a house first, and then he moved down here, but thats obviously not the case. So i just gotta deal with things as they happen. 

A long time ago my brother Ryan and I got a pair of kayacks for christmas. We didnt get to use them much at the house we lived in before, but ever since its been warm out, we have been using them on our beach.  We will travel down with both kayacks and either stay close and just enjoy the water, or kayack all around the bay like Mark and I did the other day. It is so nice to be able to use them. For anyone who has never been...try it! It can be scary at first while you are getting used to it, but it really is a lot of fun.  My brother Ryan out on the water

As everyone knows i have been looking for a place to call my own. Well i found it. There is just one problem though...the same day that i went to have my second visit to the house...so did someone else. And i am not financially able to get into a bidding war. I do not know if they are making an offer, or already have, but i guess i will find out soon. I have gotten a new job, as a RN, so once i meet with HR on tuesday i will go and make an offer on the house. My plan right now is to possibly rent for a few months, with some of the money go towards my down payment, and then close in a few months after that. I know if its meant to be it will happen, but i really like this house and i can picture me starting my professional life and Mark and my life together there. So all fingers are crossed that those other people do not want it. 

One Summer by David Baldacci is a very cute story. When I read the summary on the back of the book, i almost felt like the author gave away the story. However, there were many more "omg" moments throughout the book that kept me reading. My summary of the book is what is on the back, plus more vague things. So this does not spoil anything. This story starts off just the week before christmas. There is a husband and wife: Jack and Lizzie, and their 3 children, Michelle (Mikki), Cory and Jack (Jackie). The father has a terminal illness and his only goal is to make it to christmas for his family and then he plans on letting go. Christmas eve there is a terrible storm and Lizzie has to go out to get Jacks medications. She is killed instantly in an accident involving a snow plow. Relatives swoop in, take the children, seperating them all over the US and putting Jack in Hospice care to die...alone. When he finally thinks his time is coming, it is just the opposite. He make a miracab

I finished another book about a week ago now. This book is called Summer Friends written by Holly Chamberlin. I actually bought this book many years ago and just recently found the time to read it. This is a story about two girls who met when they were young on summer break and then grew up together. Then for some reason unknown one friend stops contacting the other. This takes us through Maggie's attempt to return to the summer place to try and get her friend back, however the girls are all grown up now with different views on life. Maggie is all about her lifestyle with her fancy clothes, cars and house. Where Delphine is more about family values and helping out around her families farm. One thing about the book is that it felt like it went on forever because every chapter skips to the next time they see each other. So the entire book is over a few weeks. Something I did like in the book is the author had a few random chapters where she went back in time to show how the friendshi

Mark and I went on vacation last october out to the Cape. When we were out there we went to visit several lighthouses. I have always been interested in them, but last summer i went to see my first and only one, so we decided that while we were in the Cape it was the perfect opportunity to visit some. This is Highland Lighthouse . This sits on a golf course that Mark and I walked along. This was the first lighthouse we went to see. It was freezing that day, so we were all bundled up.  The second lighthouse we went to see was Nauset Lighthouse . This is actually the lighthouse that is on the Cape Cod Potato Chip bag. This lighthouse replaced 3 small ones called the three sisters. The 3 sisters have been saved and moved just down the road for visitors to check out.  This is the Three Sisters Lighthouses that were originally where Nauset Lighthouse is now. You can see all 3, with me standing in the middle.  Chatham Lighthouse was our last one we went to see. Originally th

This past weekend Mark and I went on a camping trip, I will post about our trip later...but for now, the packing! For anyone going on a camping trip planning is a good idea. I made a list of all the essential items for camping such as the tent, chairs for the fire, wood, cooking pans, charcoal grill and propane stove, and other items like that. Its easy to forget something essential like bug spray or the flashlight, so making a giant list is good. Its even a good idea to make several copies so that you will always have a copy when you go camping. Then regarding food, i like to plan out meals. So first I wrote out all our meals. This was what our menu looked like: Friday Dinner- Taco in a bag Dessert- Samores Saturday Breakfast- eggs, sausage, bagels  Lunch- chicken salad & pasta salad Dinner- Burgers, green salad & potato salad Dessert- Banana boat Sunday Breakfast- eggs, sausage, bagels Lunch- steak & broccoli salad Dinner- Chicken, potatoes

Last night I worked the overnight at the hospital. By the time I got home this morning I had been awake for 24 hours straight! Talk about exhausted. My head hit the pillow right around 9 and I was out. Well of course I get a call around 10:40 AM and it wakes me up. Well it's one of the nursing homes I had given my resume and they asked me to come in for an interview! I am so beyond excited! So excited that when I laid down to try and go back to sleep...I couldn't. So I got up and sat outside with the beautiful sun and finished my book. I will post about that soon. With how hot it was I took a break and took a walk down to the beach and put my feet in the water. Now I'm just hanging out, picking out my next book and getting ready for my camping trip this weekend :) 

It had been a while since Mark and I had been out on a nice date, so i figured this past Saturday, when we were up by him in MA it was going to be date night. I picked out a nice restaurant, and we got all dressed up and we went to dinner. We went to Stripers Grill & Inn in Salisbury, MA. We sat out on the porch over looking the water. To share we got a bowl of Clam Chowder, and it was delicious! Then we both ordered a pasta dish, and the salad bar came with the meal. So we both got a good size salad, and finished those. Then our meals came! This was Marks meal. It was fried eggplant parmesan over linguini This was my meal, chicken artichoke with diced tomatoes & mushrooms in a lemon, garlic, wine sauce Mark during dinner. We took about two bites of our meals and we were already so full from the soup and salad.  Picture of me at dinner. When we were done with our meals we walked down by the water and took two pictures together.  I really love how this pictur

Sometimes at work, i like to dream up all these different vacations for Mark and I. Even if they don't happen now, they possibly will later. I have been using Groupon, and finding cool hotels that are different and unique. Then from there i am looking up fun things to do in the area to really make the trip memorable. The trips are usually only 2-3 nights but still seem like tons of fun. I have been looking up the maps for each state that show where the lighthouses are located. Last October Mark and I went all around the cape looking at lighthouses, and I would like to continue doing that. Some of the hotels i have found are: Trailside Inn, Killington VT Captain Lindsey House, Rockland ME Marriott Niagra Falls, Niagra Falls, ON The trip i am currently planning is at the same resort we stayed in last year in the Cape. Bayside Beach Resort. Except this time, i am thinking about taking the ferry out to Nantucket to check out the lighthouses out there. Who knows for now, but i

Lately i have been trying to become more frugal with my money, and save up what i can. The other day at work i was googling tips, and came across hundreds. I decided to put together an abbreviated list of quick ways to help save some money. 1. Cook at home more often then not 2. Make your own coffee 3. Bring your work to lunch more days then not 4. Make a list before going shopping 5. Buy in bulk whenever possible 6. Buy generic brands when possible 7. Consolidate and pay off debt as soon as possible 8. Pay bills on time to avoid unnecessary late fees 9. Be aware of your bank balance and avoid over draft fees 10. Avoid ATM fees 11. Price check things before buying them 12. Avoid impulse buying 13. Keep your car as long as possible 14. Ride your bike or carpool whenever possible 15. Invest in netflix instead of buying DVD 16. Shop at thrift stores or look for sales 17. Save your loose change 18. Keep track of your savings 19. Always get receipts 20. Aim for short te