100th Post : Proceed with Caution and Much Time on your Hands

Well this is my 100th post ladies and gentlemen! The crazy thing is that it has been almost a year since I blogged for the first time on June 13th 2008. I decided that I would try to list 100 things that the Lord has taught me this past year. However when I attempted to do this I got to 15 and was lost! Now I know that I have learned more than 15 things this year however I want this post to be fun so instead of killing myself trying to come up with 100 things. In the end it was a little stressful trying to come up with 100 things I even care about my life!


Things I have learned This Year

1. Blogging is fun however I feel like a nerd when I tell people I have a blog (maybe it has something to do with them snickering when I say it)
2. I loved being pregnant. I was obsessed with it and can't wait to be pregnant again soon!
3. I love being a Mother.
4. I love Annie Girl more than I ever thought I would.
   
5. Nothing has ever made me desire the Lords return more than being a mother. I see how terrible this world is with a renewed vision and I am OK if He would just like to take us all now!
6. I am selfish with my time and I am trying to change that
7. I love being home alone (besides with annie) during the day. I love having simple chores to do and no excuse to leave the house for a week.
8. I love having Kelly here which is funny because it contradicts #6 a little. But man is she fun to have around!
9. God puts every circumstance in your life for a reason. And I need to honor Him in every circumstance.
10. A few months after our house was broken into I was brought to my knees after struggling with fear. In the end it was not fear that needed to be addressed but my lack of faith. I now see a need to own my Faith and continue to work on it daily.
11. I still struggle with fear and stinkin Satan has found a foothold. It is not as bad as it was but I realized that I have always been afraid of the dark yet never had to confront the problem until now.
12. I am a minimalist when it comes to decorating and though I love a lot of the trinkets that are in the stores I don't want to have them cluttering up my house.
13. After giving up sweets for a month I didn't loose a single pound and I have decided that I will never again give up my first love (chocolate!)
    
14. I love my old house but I would be ok with living in one that is less than 100 years old next time.
15. It is very lonely waking up in the morning when your husband is out of town. Even though Joe is rarely home when I get up in the morning.
    

Random Things About My Childhood

1. The earliest memory I have is when I was 3 which even I find hard to believe. I remember the dogs jumping into the moving truck when we were moving from Cold Spring to California.
   
2. I gashed my head open on the saw table in the garage on the 4th of july when I tried to run under it hiding from my dad (we weren't allowed in there) It needed quite a few stitches but my parents refused to go to the ER on the 4th of July due to all the crazys playing with fireworks!
3. I have a giant scar on my forehead that I have to cover with my hair from that day. My mom feels guilty every time she sees it :o)
4. We drove to Florida when I was little and my dad made us all our own maps of the route so that we wouldn't ask a million times if we were there yet. He would have us get our map out and find out for ourselves how close we were.
   
5. To this day I love maps & figuring things out for myself :o)
   
6. I was peed on, spit on, and bitten in the butt by Gautraud boys
7. I was always forced to play the boyfriend by Maria, Kris and Kara when they were playing "Cool Girls" or "Mindy & Cindy"
8. My friend Laura and I started our own "Mindy & Cindy"
   
9. Mindy & Cindy was created by Kara. I think it was just so that we didnt have to call it "playing house". Later we were allowed to use different names than Mindy & Cindy and we shortened it to MC.
10. Cool Girls was only played at Maria or Rachels house because... well... lets admit it they were cooler than we were :o)
    
11. We also played "Runaways" (also created by Kara...SHOCKER!) where we pretty much acted like the Box Car Children but instead we were running away from our evil step mom who flew around in a helicopter looking for us and we were forced to live in the woods.
12. We werent allowed to go barefoot outside until after Easter.
13. We were obsessed with Juice Newton and Carly Simon
    
14. I have known all the lyrics to "2 hot girls on a hot summer night" since I was 5... not exactly what you want your daughter to sing at 5 years old.
15. My mom knows and taught us every nursery rhyme known to man
16. My Dad taught us a song when we were little that is supposed to end in telling a bumble bee to go to hell, he changed the words and I didn't know it until I was at least 25.

Thoughts about my siblings

1. Kara and I have never gotten along easily although we are very close and I love her dearly. Early on she didn't appreciate my goody goody tattletaleness and I didn't appreciate the way she made Mom yell all the time :o) One time Kara beat me through my bed covers while straddling me as I screamed.... don't worry I told mom :o) I was evil..
2. She is an amazing writer, one time she wrote me a story about a bunny. The only time I ever tried to write a short story I dedicated it to her, gave it to her to edit & critique. Later while in college she wrote and edited many a paper for both Joe and I!
3. Kris was given to our family for comic relief meaning we are constantly laughing at her. Kara reminded me of our favorite Krissy moment and I will try to recreate it for you. ME:"Kris, we are dissecting cats in biology at school, I named mine after you" KRIS: "What did you name it?" ME: "Krissy" KRIS: "What?"
4. Kris went away to Washington to Moody for a year during my senior year, I cried in bible class because she was going to miss all my senior year stuff.
   
5. Donnie Donnie Donnie... "the only boy in an all girl world" This poor kid put up with a lot from us. My Mom said that the Lord gave him the Gautraud boys next door for a reason, they are his pseudo-brothers.
   
6. Don used to have a little lisp and couldn't say his R's he would always say "Oh yeah wight" when we teased him which just gave us something else to tease him about.
7. He was the only one that was allowed to run around without a shirt on!
   
8. He is WORLDS WORST ARGUER!!! I used to get so mad I told him i wanted to bite him until my teeth touched! :o) I feel sorry for Lauren, she holds her own though.
9. Kelly is the ultimate baby. She lives and has always lived in her own world. She now acknowledges this world and calls it "The Bubble"
10. I hate the term "she wears her heart on her sleeve" But it sums Kell up completely, you will never have to wonder about Kelly's mood.
11. Kelly loves the Lord openly and everything she does is done with excitement and passion.
    

Random Facts about me

1. My middle name is Allison
2. I am 26
3. I often forget my age
4. I have no idea what my astrological sign is and I can't stand that people think it makes a difference in life.
   
5. My favorite place on earth is mom and dads house, then Indiana
6. My favorite vacation is Lake Barkley with the family
7. I have an unhealthy obsession with Banana Republic and their sale rack
   
8. I haven't even made it to 50 things yet
9. I have been trying to write this post for 2 weeks!
10. I am not a very driven person I always wish I could have things without working for them.
11. I hate the lottery, a guy won 230 million dollars this week and lives in a trailer in the 7th poorest towns in America with his parents and they are ranchers. From the looks of things they were very poor so I am glad he now has 88 million (he took the lump sum) however what was someone who was nearly bankrupt doing spending their money on lottery tickets!?!
12. I LOVE Christmas time and old Christmas movies
13. I love the smell of Autumn, Snow in Winter, Cut grass in summer, and warm spring days
14. I hate that Autumn means summer is over, being inside in the winter, humidity in summer, too much rain in spring.
15. I love to bake however I have no self control, so I don't do it often for fear that I will eat half of the dough and then the majority of the end product.
    
16. I love working the nursery desk at church because I have met new people and I was really tired of not ever seeing, talking to or meeting new people!
17. I hate doing dishes because they are never done, as soon as you do them more are piled up ready to be washed.
    
18. I love having a dishwasher so you would think that I would do dishes a little more willingly.
19. I like to read, I prefer Novels however I am learning to read other books
    
20. I like making lists, grocery, to do, honey do, I have even been known to make a list of things I want to buy vs. things I need to buy.
21. Yesterday I bought a .99 cent slider at Steak n Shake to justify buying a $3.00 orange freeze which was what I really wanted for lunch :o)
    

The Husband

1. I still to this day can't believe that I am married to Joe Zuerner
2. We complement each other quite nicely in that we are both laid back people
3. He is the hardest worker I know
4. He loves to do work for others and is always cutting someones grass or working on someones car with his step dad George.
   
5. Joe has a lot of good George qualities that I am glad he had George around to instill in him. I think that he works hard and takes pride in what he does, he desires to learn more and try to fix things himself, he is a giver of his time.
   
6. He also has a lot of annoying qualities that I wish he didn't inherit from George however out of respect I wont go listing those on here... I will say that YOU TWO ARE NOT KINGS OF THE ROAD!! :o) But that is a typical guy illness.
7. He doesnt mind driving anywhere needed, doesnt worry about mileage or gas prices, he says cars are for driving. He offered to make 3 different trips to Indiana when we went up for Grandmas funeral!
8. He is super silly and I love how randomly it comes out, it throws my family off and it makes me laugh.
9. He is a homebody like me and prefers to hang out with family on the weekends :o)
10. He intentionally messes up the lyrics to songs just to make himself laugh and knows I will appreciate it as well.
11. I will laugh when its all said and done and he has all daughters :o)

My Nurses Hat

1. I went to nursing school because everybody else was doing it... seriously, Kris, Lexi, Tina & I all signed up for nursing school together. Lexi and I are nurses and now 8 years later Tina is a PCA!
2. I decided to be a Labor and Delivery Nurse because Jayne told me that if I were a nurse she would have another baby :o) I haven't held her to that yet.
3. I LOVED nursing school taking one day at a time and one test at a time.
   
4. I hated NKU gen eds especially the teachers. It scares me to send my kids to public school because those professors would stand up in front of a English class and proclaim Buddha or whatever their personal soap box was and I had to sit there and listen to them just so that I could pass writing 101!
5. I worked as a medical assistant at the Healthy Beginnings clinic in Ohio for about 6 months until one of the social workers and one of the midwives I was working with picked up the phone and called the L&D manager and handed me the phone! I simply told her that I would really appreciate working in L&D and please consider my resume :o)
6. I was offered a job by an interim manager who was on a hiring kick no matter what the experience (I had none!) She was gone a few months later, she was HORRIBLE! But she hired me!
7. I LOVE working with the laboring woman, I love every aspect of it.
   
8. I wish I were better at working with the natural child birthing woman but unfortunately I don't get the experience to do so very often.
   
9. I also like working in the OR doing C-Sections, however I hate doing recoveries. It makes me think I would like to be an OR nurse some day because you hand the pt over to the PACU nurse when its done.
   
10. My favorite patient is the young married couple having their first baby. I love teaching them all about what is going on and the majority dont have any expectations.
    
11. No two labors are alike however I lOVE when science/creation of the body proves itself and I get to use my knowledge.
12. There are some very controversial issues that come up at work and they make me uncomfortable. Did you know that by law the woman has the say over her body and can opt out of an emergency c-section if the baby's heart rate is down! I know its no different from abortion except for the fact that the woman came into the hospital thinking she was going home with a baby and just because she doesn't want to be cut open risks the babys life. We thankfully are REALLY good at convincing them to get cut :o)
13. I love nice doctors who aren't herding cattle and actually listen to the patient and treat each patient specifically.
14. Yesterday I worked with a Family Practice resident who was new at our hospital and I got to tell her what to do... it was kind of nice. Evidently that is common among nurses and residents however until now I haven't had the confidence to tell one what to do.
    
15. I do however have an opinion about their treatment and talk about them behind their backs ;o)
    
16. Some residents should never become licenced medical providers!!
17. We are having a baby boom right now as it is 9 months after the hurricane power outage.
    
18. Duke is giving away "I (heart) Duke Energy" onesies!!
19. Being at work makes me want to be pregnant every day I am there.
20. Our hospital is nothing like Greys Anatomy. We sat around on a slow night last week with the graduating residents and tried to come up with Grays Anatomy worthy gossip that happened in the 4 years that they were there and only came up with one affair and one creepy gay doctor who is no longer around for creepy reasons. NOT Scandalous at all!
    

Random thoughts that I was going to blog about in the 2 weeks that it took me to put this together.

1. I dont remember my fat jiggling around nearly as much when i was little on four-wheeler rides in Indiana!
2. We all rely on God to put food on the table and provide a job to make the money to buy the things we need. However it was very hard to see my Uncle Joe watch the rain pour for weeks on end while he was needing to be out planting the seeds that would harvest the grain he needs to make a living. Relying on the weather for your livelihood is SERIOUSLY relying on God! I am praying for you Big Uncle Joe!
3. I bought 2 flats of Inpatients which were my Grandmas signature flower to plant in a flower bed that has been driving me nuts since I moved in because I don't know what to put in it! I decided that it is going to be my annual Granny Great Memorial Garden. It is beautiful!!
4. I am glad this post is over with. I ought to give a prize away to the person who actually reads this whole thing!
   

Run That By Me Once More?

Spending the day with Elly Beth is always good for a few laughs. One of my favorite things is that she sings when she is riding in the car. I usually encourage praise and worship songs because I love to hear her say things "teach me some melodious sonnet"
In the car today she was singing these words to the tune of Frarijaka however this version was new to me...
Where is Shocka
Where is Shocka
Door Man Blue
Door Man Blue
Dingalinga Summa
Dingalinga Summa
Run Away
Run Away

She then asked me what a "Shocka" was and said "don't you know this song? My Mom doesn't know it either". Its a good thing the girl likes to be funny because I was able to laugh with her instead of at her ;o)
She has been fun and surprisingly obedient. I only needed to spank her once to which she replied "but my mom doesn't ever spank me" Oops I laughed right in her face at that one! Sorry Kara!

Morning

I have always claimed to be a morning person. I love mornings. Especially the cool crisp spring/summer mornings like today. My first memory of fully appreciating an early morning was when I was little, I have no idea how old I was however our family was going on a trip to Florida. We only did that twice and I was between 8 & 13. Anyway I was up with the sun when my dad and I went to get the rental van from a place by the airport. I remember the feeling of the cool morning and the sun shining so bright even though it wasn't fully in the sky yet. Everything still covered in dew and shining while the last of the fog burnt off. I remember feeling important to be up so early at the airport with all of the important people. (I will blog another time about the trips my dad used to take us on to the airport, that is a warm fuzzy feeling too)
When I am on vacation I love to get up early. I like to be the first one up to enjoy the quietness of the day before its gone (and these days quietness doesn't exist in our family) My favorite thing to do on vacation is lay around so why not get up early to enjoy every moment possible?
This morning Annie girl was up at 6:30 and after she ate we sat in the rocking chair in her room wrapped in blankets with her window open letting the cool air in. Ever since she was born she likes to have us wrap our hands around hers and blow on them to warm them up so that is what we did :o) I love that I can share such a beautiful morning with my sweet little Annie Girl. Of course now she is back asleep for what will probably be a 2 hour nap and I must start my day... I foresee a nap in my future today!

Is It Just My Personality?

Hello blog world. I have been thinking about something that I decided to ask you all about. I think about this often and today as I was praying and looking at my life (activities of daily living that is) I wondered if my life was as God honoring as it could be. There is an area of my life that I feel guilty about and I am not sure if I should. Don't get anxious I am not about to reveal a dirty secret or anything :o)
I am not a good friend. Ever since I was a little girl I have never been a good friend. I have matured (praise God) past being the know it all always trying to one-up my best friend Laura when I was 5-10.
Then I moved on the Abbie who I was so totally enamored by that I simply followed in her footsteps and everything she said was cool I automatically thought so also. During this time I was also friends with a girl named Angela who wasn't a christian and I am to this day sorry my mom let me spend so much time at her house. It must have been a stage because I was enamored with Angelas life as well however the difference being that I truly felt sorry for her having to live it. I think I liked being Angelas friend because her parents were in love with me and constantly sang my praises which eventually got old and I stopped being friends with her. I guess I got bored with Abbie (sorry Ab) and moved on to Christina.
Tina made the biggest impact on my life that any one person ever has. I am who I am today because of my friendship with Tina. T is why I think that down deep somewhere in me there is a friend willing to give time and tears, work and laughter, and girlfriend silliness. Tina moved to Ky when we were 13 and we became immediately inseparable. She was my one true girlfriend. More importantly we grew in Christ together. She taught me what it was like to exercise your faith and not just live your parents faith. We were active in youth group and were considered "influential leaders" planning and making youth events as fun and God honoring as they could be. I felt like I had a desire for a relationship with Christ that I had never had before and wanted to share that excitement with others. We served at Grace together teaching and working nursery as well as greeting and making youth feel welcome. When I went to Calvary halfway through my Jr year Tina and I drifted apart as we simply became different people. At Calvary I enjoyed being around fellow Christians and I participated in bible studies and quickly made a lot of friends however no real deep or lasting relationships (with the exception of my husband of course).
Through college I was active in the singles ministry but mostly because it was fun. I have always enjoyed my christian life and planning praise and worship events on friday nights was my idea of a good time. During this time I did a lot of 'hanging out' but didn't invest in peoples lives at all and did not open up mine to anyone (again with the exception of my husband).

To this day I don't have any girlfriends. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my sisters dearly and if there was anyone who I could say I have desired to spend time with or invest in, it would be them. However other than that there is no one I talk to. I don't call anyone during the day to check in or make plans with to shop or have coffee. I have done these things before and had fun however its not something that comes naturally to me.

So here is my question, this is what I feel guilty about. Should I be investing more of my time in girlfriends? I am not talking about taking away from my family. My husband and child will always come first when it comes to my time. There are so many women that I think I would enjoy getting to know but I haven't. Am I being selfish? When i was in women's bible study at Grace I felt like such a participator! It was so new for me! Ann was talking about coming alongside people and getting in the trenches with them and helping them through hard times or struggles. I realized that I don't do this but its probably because I don't know anyone! :o)
Even with blogging I have a fake relationship with about 10 women who half of them i would simply call acquaintances that I share my stories with and read about theirs however these are the stories that I guess I should be sharing over coffee :o)

My mom sat down with me when I was younger and expressed her concern in my friend history. I felt like a friend bulimic I would binge on one friend and then purge and that was the end of the friendship forever! I am sorry to say mom but I dont remember what the point of this heart to heart was, but ever since we had it I have felt my girlfriend inadequacies.

Very Interesteing Updates on Life

It was a month ago that I posted the video of my daughter in the beginning stages of crawling. She now crawls on all fours and pulls herself up into standing as well as can go from crawling to sitting up. Today she has found the other rooms of the house... ok maybe I showed them to her. She had no idea there was anything for her to crawl to past the living room. Today I took her into the kitchen with me as I made some cookies and now she is crawling in there before I know it! Now I have to try to keep my hard wood floors clean which was something I NEVER used to do.

Also, there is a strange smell in my house that is driving me crazy! It is mostly in the entryway/bottom of the steps area. Our house has no sub-floring and I don't smell anything in the basement, so I thought it may be coming from the walls like some small rodent may have died in there. Anyway I decided to clean the floors really well today and sniff around to see if I could detect where it was coming from. However I also started the washing machine which hasn't been run in about a week and now the smell has mostly gone away...hmmmm. Maybe it was the washing machine? But why didn't the basement smell??!!! This is driving me crazy! I should have Kate N over to sniff it out with her heightened pregnancy olfactories!

Excuses Excuses

Do you have an excuse for everything? I do, I try to think logically and take responsibility for my actions but its easier on my self esteem if I make up an excuse for a mistake/failure/wrongdoing etc if I have a good excuse :o)
A few weeks ago when I stepped on the scale and it read heavier than I thought it should I thought maybe it was the clothes I was wearing. Then a week later when it crept up a little more I seriously thought I am probably pregnant... today when it read even higher I thought I should call my doctor I probably have a tumor growing huge as a volleyball somewhere and I should have it removed!
In actuality I should probably quit patting myself on the back for the salad I had for lunch when I stop and get Ice Cream for dinner :o( I hear Weight Watchers calling my name again...

Slow

There is something to be said for slowing down and then slowing down a little bit more :o) I personally prefer slow. I enjoy mapping out my week and then knowing that the majority of it will be spent at home. I love having just the right amount of stuff to do and enough time to get it done. I love staying at home (with my to do list made up) because I know that I have the freedom to sit on the floor and play with Annie or go to lunch with a friend and that its ok that I didn't get the laundry done because I will have time another day.


Now that I think about it, that is probably the freedom people talk about when they live on a budget. You have everything mapped out and know where all of your money needs to be and have freedom to make decisions about what you want to do with the rest. I have to ashamedly admit that we don't budget our money :o( I would like to, I have even sat down with 2 different responsible people twice and mapped out what it would look like, they were encouraged by our spending habits and they both put us on a one month challenge of looking at our expenses, which I did, and then when the month was up I didn't do anything about what I found out! We are not big spenders and we do put money into savings... I am just not to sure what the savings is for! There is no freedom in that! What if I decide to buy a small island, or a Ferrari... I don't know if I can because I am not sure what my savings is for, what if I need it for future medical expenses?! Oh the frustrations! Now I feel convicted to start budgeting again and that is not on my to do list!!! However the dryer just buzzed and I have been working on crossing THAT off on my to do list for 3 days now... what? Its my last load. How many of you can say that?