Home: it's where we live, actually

After work yesterday, B and I headed to the almighty Ikea in Schaumburg. Secret tip: Ikea is not crowded on Friday nights. We got some goodies: boxes, a replacement to a closet organizer that didn't survive the move, some kitchen stuff to make our shelves usable, a stepstool and a bathroom rug that appears to not clash with the bathroom floors. As I watch B put an Ikea shelf together (he doesn't have my Swedish know-how with furniture assembly) I actually feel like this is home. Sure, we've got no couch, several unpacked boxes, a camping chair used as indoor furniture and very little sensibly organization happening. But it's awesome here. We've had a few visitors already and tomorrow my parents come to check the place out and bring some garage sale finds to spiff this place up. I just did a little unpacking and it's possible our place will be ready for the beautiful DC duo of Cindy and Erin who are visiting next weekend. We're getting closer to making a decision regarding the couch situation, definitely have a workspace (for B and me - schoolwork, bills, blogging, B's work from home, etc...) and our kitchen already feels like the happiest place I've ever chopped an onion. Before next weekend's visitors we have a checklist though, and in usual Mandasaurus fashion, I'll share it:

• Clear out the extra bedroom so a bed can fit.
• Get a bed(!?!?) for our bedroom.
• Switch out our old mattress into the extra room, new mattress in our room.
• Or just get/borrow an air mattress.
• Find a shower curtains that looks right in the bathroom. (Possibly at Target.)
• Buy baby shower presents -- Cindy and Erin are visiting for a baby shower! My niece and I have a date to go to Babies R Us (the most confusing store ever) on Tuesday.
• Work
• School! OH! I passed the placement test so I'm now enrolled in a slightly miserable stats class. Bad news: It's stats, with an odd, chatty, joke-telling professor. Major bad news: It's stats. Good news: Jokes, oddness, online homework, classroom where eating is allowed, and only 14 total class meetings. That's 13 to go, if you're counting.
• Cooking - We've realized that our summer schedule -- with me working and in school, and B working a lot with a big project -- leaves us without much cooking time in the evenings. I'm planning to fix that by using weekends to bulk up on food choices for the week. That means Sunday night will involve pizza-dough making, muffin-baking and such.
  
• Getting excited about Loyola. This is on my to-do list for the rest of summer. Whenever I'm feeling frustrated with cooking, stats, hauling myself around far north Chicago, etc... I think about starting nursing school at Loyola. I'm so excited. It'll be 16 busy months, but completely awesome too. I've been working toward this for two years, and I haven't wanted to turn back once. I get emails from Loyola ABSN people now and it just makes my heart sing. It's not just awesome to have a plan for this whole becoming-a-nurse idea, but it's awesome to have an excellent program too. Go Ramblers!