Here we go again...

We did it again. Spoke to soon. Just earlier this week, Trey and I were discussing how "abnormally healthy" our Rooney had been the past few months. Should have known better. Roo went to the vet today for an inflamed cyst in his eye and some localized infection. I wish he would at least have better timing when he gets sick, like, not right before our rent and utility bills are coming up next week. *Sigh*...dogs. What can you do? He's worth it (most of the time) :). 

Things per usual are nuts. 5 AM mornings, sleeping 4 hours a night, homework, studying, working, sitting in the wrong nursing class for about 15 minutes on one occasion (yeah, definitely in over my head sitting in on 2nd year OB clinical reviews yesterday on accident), and not to mention trying to enjoy some free time with Trey and friends (what?! free time?!). Welcome to the next 1 1/2 years of my life. 

I'm still managing to find time to play chef. Tuesday I made (kind of) homemade meat sauce and spaghetti. Not gonna lie...it was good. I'm kind of amazed, actually. And it only took approximately 20 minutes from prep to serve. So for those of you who are interested, here's the recipe:

Jessie's Super Quick Kind-of-Homemade Meat Sauce

1/2 lb ground beef

1 box frozen spinach

2 cloves garlic

olive oil

1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce (I said kind-of-homemade...)

1 box of your favorite pasta (I prefer whole grain or multi grain linguine)

Heat large saute pan to medium high. Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic. Add some olive oil to pan and saute garlic. Then add ground beef, separating into smaller pieces and cook until well browned. Dump out excess oil and grease from pan. Microwave frozen spinach until thawed. Add jar of marinara sauce and thawed spinach to meat and garlic mixture. Let simmer for a few minutes. Serve over pasta of choice. 

Quick, simple, and yields TONS of leftovers. 

Ugh...

Today is just...ugh. There really aren't any good appropriate words that can describe how my day thus far has gone. I start nursing school tomorrow, which I have mixed feelings about. I'm excited about being a nurse, but less than thrilled about going back to school after already completing a previous 4 year degree a year ago, waking up at 5am 4 days a week, and a 1 hour commute each direction.

I've been really, REALLY busy today.  Little Rock all morning doing school stuff at two locations, rushing back home to meet with cable/internet guy, moving money from my old bank to Trey's bank, and now work. What's left on the agenda for today, you ask? A study guide to be completed before our first day tomorrow, getting school supplies (okay, I'm kind of excited about that. At 22 I'm still giddy as a kid on Christmas morning to get school supplies), and gathering up all necessary supplies for the first day of clinicals/simlab. BLAH. I hate the feeling of just being rushed. I've finally been able to just sit down and regroup for a second this afternoon. I need a nap. I need my husband. I need a cookie. Is that so much for a girl to ask?

First dinner...success!

So Friday night Trey and I decided to act like adults and cook our first dinner in our apartment. We've been afraid to use our stove because prior to our moving in, a rat had made it his home/toilet. Yuck. (Side note, keyboard cleaner, surgical masks, gloves, and several bottles of bleach does the trick to clean out rat doo doo pies from the nooks and crannies of a stove....and yes, it was as insane as it's appearing in your head right now).

I call it our stove/oven....but in all reality it's a glorified easy bake oven. It's small, like crazy small. But it does the trick for two people with limited cooking skills.

So back to dinner, we bought some cheap steaks and instant mashed 'taters (the cheesy kind, of course). Marinated the steaks in soy sauce, salt, pepper, and garlic powder for a few minutes, then threw them on our fancy saute pan. 4 minutes on each side, 4 minutes in the microwave for our potatoes and BAM...dinner on the fly. Everything tasted great, the cut of meat was less than desirable (I'm a total steak snob, fillet mignon is what I crave. Rich man's taste on a poor man's budget).

Then we watched a movie with some friends and Rooney...or tried to, at least. The storms were big time cramping our style. Have I mentioned how we lose power just about every time it storms? Our apartment's kind of 'quirky' (that's a nice way of saying it's your typical poor married couple's first cheap rental). When we vacuum, if anything is turned on in an outlet besides the vacuum, we blow the breaker.  Awesome, right?  Be jealous.

For those of you who don't know, this is Rooney

'Till next time!

So this is love...

Being married is awesome. Being poor is not so awesome. It seems as though they both go hand-in-hand, however, so we're making the best of this new adventure. New apartment, new husband, new bills, new career path, new life lessons....it's quite the experience. That being said, we're incredibly blessed. We have awesome families, awesome friends, an awesome dog....everything is awesome and we wouldn't change a thing.

This blog is a testament to all things a new wife with big ambitions learns (usually the hard way)-the adventures of a young, dumb, in love, and hungry girl. Some people would call me a little 'type A', an over achiever, a dreamer, and clueless. They're probably right. I'm a 'fake' grown-up, I merely resemble an adult. I'm 22. I still mooch food from my parents (when I'm not pretending like I'm a top chef), call Dad when there is a half-dead rat in our apartment (still forget I now have a fabulous husband for that), our freezer contains only pop-ice and frosty beer mugs, I watch my fair share of trashy TV shows (of course mixed with an ample helping of anything on Discovery Channel....seriously), and am likely to be found eating some sugar bomb cereal for dinner more than one night a week.

I hope to share my new experiences and lessons with everyone. All things a newly married, struggling (the good kind though-the funny, quirky, and teaches you things kind), and likely too-much-on-my-plate gal figures out. I'll share life lessons, stumbled-upon (AKA: accidental) recipes,  and things I just think are neat-o.

So, who's feeding us dinner tonight?