Heepy Birfday to Me!

I turned 27 on the 26th. Man, that was a lot cooler last year when I turned 26 on the 26th. Oh well, I guess that's a one-time cool thing. So, as often happens when my birthday comes around I start thinking about everything that's happened in the last year.

Boy, it was a doozy of a year:
Last year we bought a house - moved in on my birthday last year, had a baby, bought a car, broke that car, bought another car, survived spring semester of Jonathan's school, working our way through summer semester, realized school was sucking all our money away and got the government to cover some of the cost, and have kept off the 20 pounds that I lost when Gwen was born. I don't know how I've managed to keep that weight off so don't ask.

What new and exciting things will happen this year? Maybe I'll be pregnant again on my birthday. We're thinking about having the kids two years apart and Gwen's almost one. I'm hoping to change something with my job. I've been less and less happy here in the cardiac ICU over the past few months. Part of it is that we have a really high turn over rate - most nurses use this job as a stepping stone for going to graduate school - and I haven't really been able to bond with my co-workers as well as I'd like. I've also been here for almost two years and nothing's different - except the people. I applied for a charge nurse position - that's like being the shift leader. It'd mean a raise and extra responsibility. If I don't get it I'll move on to something else entirely different in nursing but still stick with IHC so I don't lose my pay scale, benefits, senority, or anything. I'm seriously thinking about Labor and Delivery or going back to the InstaCare. It'd be awesome to work somewhere where good things happen every day and what's better than a baby?

Okay edit update: right after I first posted this I was searching the job listings for IHC and the InstaCare that I worked at for 5 years and loved is hiring full-time nurses. I applied and am pretty sure they'll offer me the job. They loved me and I only left to fulfill an requirement for the hospital paying for my nursing school. I'll let you know what happens with it.

I have pictures from my birthday day and I'll post them as soon as I figure out how to keep Gwen occupied long enough to upload them on the computer. That's getting harder to do these days - not uploading pictures, but keeping Gwen busy.

Here's the promised pics:
This is what I woke up to. Gwen let me sleep in until 7:00 am!
But she was so cute and happy I couldn't be grumpy about being up early.
We got ready for the day.
Had our favorite breakfast - frozen waffles and fruit. Sent Jonathan off to school, played downstairs and later took a nap until he got home from class. We watched some TV while Jonathan baked a cake and then went to the store for ice cream. Got tacos from Del Taco and went to the Park Park.
Played with Mason, Kim, Linda, Sam, Dianne, Charlotte, Grandma and Grandpa Rail, Grandma and Grandpa Buckholts, Megan, and Laura at the park.
Mason helped Gwen go down the slides.

We all had cake and ice cream. We played until it started to drizzle and Gwen was worn out.

After getting Gwen in bed I took Boot out on a quick walk then came home and went to bed. It was a good day.