Is flu season over yet?????

As you know I'm a nurse.  I work in a small hospital.  Flu season has hit the area HARD.  We've been full of patients, full of flu patients, full of repeat, discharged and back in a few days, patients.  Nurses calling in sick cause they now have something.  Full of texts or calls "can you work?" (NO)  Full of call lights,  (will you just go to sleep already) full of family members(sometimes being assholes) and full of I'm kind of burnt out and ready for 2 whole nights off.  I don't want Monday to come cause that means going back to work again.  And I kind of don't want to.   Maybe the flu will start to lessen.  I hope so.  Its been a tough one this year.

 And on top of everything else, I have to wait to see Black Panther.  We could go see it on Sat, but well, I'm betting its gonna be full and I'm over crowds.  I just want to sit in my chair, and do nothing. Go nowhere, see no one but my hubby.  But then I work Mon and Tue so I have to wait until Wed to see it. UGH!

I've not made a YouTube video in quite a while. I just have not had the energy to get up and get one made.  I guess I just don't care right now.  I've got a couple I want to get made this weekend, so maybe I can get an extra one made for later in the week.

Not much else to say other than I'm tired, and now I'm pissed at myself for picking up an extra shift at the nursing home.  WTF was I thinking???  Of course when I picked it up, I had no idea I'd be coming off 2 weeks of almost long ass crappy(sometimes literally) nights at the hospital. 

What to blog, what to blog?

I wanted to write something, but I have no freaking idea what to write about lol.

I've been a lazy slug this weekend.  I had so many things I wanted to do, but I've not done well, pretty much any of them. I've read, taken naps lounged,loved my puppies and kitties and of course, surfed the net.

Tomorrow I have to go back to reality, and go back to work. UGH!  Oh, I like my job, but well, its nice to not have to go to work lol.   Now if only I could win the lottery, or become some really large YouTuber and make tons of money and I could just stay at home and do nothing lol.  Ok, I'd make more YouTube videos lol.

It snowed. UGH!  I'm sick of snow, I'm sick of winter.  Even if I have tried to tell myself that we need the moisture, its easier to accept getting moisture when its 50 and raining than when its 15 and snowing.  Am I right? 

Sitting here thinking of the stuff I really should have done this weekend, but I really don't care enough to get up and do it lol.

I did manage to get a fitness planner/journal started.  Gonna keep it up so I can track what works, what doesn't, how regular I am at tracking food, workouts, etc.  And how I feel during the day. And a small section to track ideas for my fitness channel YouTube.

If you are interested in my fitness YouTube channel, here it is.  Not much there, but I'm hoping to post 1-2 videos a week.  Once I get a new tripod to hold my phone, I'm doing start filming parts of my workouts..

Rhonda Gets Fit, my fitness channel

For not knowing what to write, I've written more than I thought I would. 

Well thanks for nothing YouTube

Well, its pretty common knowledge now that YouTube changed their policy and now to get monetized you have to have 1000 subscribers and 4000 HOURS of views in a years time.  Great.  I worked my butt off to get the 10,000 views to get my monetizeation, and now, nope.  Goodby.  Jerks.

I only have 220 subs and only like 900 hours of view time in the last year.  So fuck.  Just when I was just starting to see the money going up in my account, ever so slightly closer to the magic payout  amount, and now, unless I can magically create 800 subscribers and like 3500 hours of view time, I lose it all.

I'm not going to stop making videos, cause its a great hobby, but well, I was hoping to maybe this year make a little money which I would have either invested in new equipment for my channel like better lights, lenses,etc, and maybe into giveaways for my subscribers.   Now, it won't happen probably for a couple years.   UGH!

I'm going to Des Moines on Sat by myself and doing some shopping.  I think I might pick up some decorations to have in the background for my channel.  I have a backdrop, but I think sometimes I'd like to have something different so we'll see what I find.  I also will buy new shoes, cause, well, NEW SHOES!   I might show them off on my channel soon. 

Yes, maybe I might expand out to showing off shoes, clothes, etc along with makeup and skin care.   If you are interested let me know.

I'm going to be going through my makeup collection and getting rid of a few things.  A couple blushes and one foundation are going bad I'm pretty sure, so they need tossed.  And a few palettes, I can just do without.    Decluttering at its best.

Hope things are well for you.

SHERLOCK IS HOME!!!

And I'm just a little bit excited. Ok, maybe a whole BUNCH excited.

Yes, I'm in my scrubs.  He came home on Fri when I was at work, of course. So I didn't get to see him until Sat morning about 12 hours after he got home.  Little devil.  He's thinner than he was, but overall seems pretty healthy.

And he seems very happy to be home.

And he's stayed as far away from doors going outside as he can lol.

I'm trying to figure out my calories and macros to eat to get rid of some of this fat I carry around my waist. Its fucking HARD!  I don't want to cut back much,  as I have a big appetite and to be quite honest, I like eating and get rather bitchy when I cut back to much.   But sadly I think I need to cut my carbs back some to get rid of the belly fat.  Time to get more bacon I guess.  More bacon and eggs for breakfast and less cereal. 

Workouts have been ok.  I need to train more days a week, but they are killers when I do manage to hit my home gym.  If you are interested in my home gym, here's a link:
My Home Gym

Not much else to say.  Trying to recover from my shit storm of a weekend at work.  The flu is hitting big time, and its not fun.  Thankfully, I have a few days/nights off to recover.

I can't believe I bought that! FAINTS

So, after weeks of considering, looking at, wishing for, and dreaming about, I finally got this.

This is the Viseart Grande Pro Volume 1 palette.  It cost, wait for it, $175.  Yes, I mean $175.  And I ordered it.  No I'm not crazy.  Ok, I am, but not really.  I ordered it from Beautylish, and they have a flexable payment plan so I can pay for it in 3 payments.

Now, I love LOVE Viseart. I've got 2 12color palettes from them, and I love them. They are quite frankly the best eye shadows I've got. Blend well, last 14+ hours look amazing. And the 12 color ones were $80.  So I got 24 colors for $160.  So 30 colors at $175 is a "steal" lol.

Besides, this sets of my Slow to No Buying Challenge I'm going to do for 6 weeks.  Until Feb 28, I'm going to greatly reduce the amount of makeup I'm going to buy.  I've got more than enough, and the stuff I've seen that's coming out soon, it doesn't inspire me at all.   It all looks the same or its from brands that are very inconsistent in their products. Either they are nice, or crappy. 

So, I'm going to put more money in savings, and maybe buy a new pair of shoes, or a nice outfit.   And use up the makeup that I already have.

I'm also going to start a Pan Project for some of my makeup.  Pan projects are where you use makeup enough that you either use it up, you hit the pan in powder like eye shadows or blushes, or you decide you just don't like it and declutter it.  I'm going to be deciding which products to hit pan on for 2018 and film a video on the products I have decided to use up.

Been trying to workout.  This week sucked cause well, I lost Sherlock and I've not seen him since Tue. Its Sat now. I don't think I'll ever see him again.   In my happy place, in my happy thoughts, I want to think cause he's so friendly, someone took him in, and are now keeping him warm and happy.  I don't want to think the other thoughts.  Nope, I've cried enough, thank you very much.

One of my kitties is lost, and its all my fault

My kitty Sherlock got outside yesterday.  I'm 99% sure its cause I didn't quite get the kitchen door all the way latched and so it blew open, and out he went.  We can't find him. Its been more than 24 hours now, getting closer to 36, and I'm devastated.  He was my special kitty.  I found him living outside as a very young kitten, and got him inside. In a couple weeks had a very nasty ear infection that darn near killed him.  I mean I was giving him water and tuna juice for a couple days to keep him alive until the antibiotics kicked in.  Since then he walks with a tilted head I think as a result from damage from that ear infection.  And now he's lost, outside, probably dead by now, but if he's still alive, he's scared and hungry and I can't find him to help him.

I've been alternating between trying not to cry cause I'm around people, or sobbing like a toddler who lost their teddy bear. I was walking around outside about an hour ago, sobbing, while putting the cat food in the dish we feed the cats in over and over hoping he'd hear it and maybe come to get food.  He didn't.  So I sobbed even harder as I went back in the house.

The weather is going to turn to crap tomorrow, so if he's not already dead, which is a good possibility, thanks to morons who think they need to drive 70mph on the highway we live on, or the fact we have fields around out house and raccoons and coyotes think cats are things to kill, he will freeze to death.

I hate thinking he might have been killed by a wild animal, scared panicked cause I couldn't get that fucking door shut. My poor kitty. I miss him. I miss him so much.  He would sit and look out our kitchen window with me in the mornings, or sit on the deep freeze and paw at us as we walked by so we would pet him.  He also loved to go into my gym with me.  He'd sometimes sneak in little scamp.

Here he is in the dog kennel.

Here he is helping me play video games.

I'm going to miss my Sherlock.  Please come back

So I need to get my crap together!

The holidays are over, and I need to get my crap together.  I've been slacking way to much.  Been buying way to much.  Been sitting way to much.  I need to get my shit up, moving and back saving money.  Or more money. 

I've decided to take up using a bullet journal.  I've ordered a nice looking journal and I'm hoping to get started in the next few days.  I've got a simple day planner, but I mainly use it to keep track of my workouts, and other fitness stuff, which is what I wanted it for.  But I want something to have to keep track of everything else.  Bills, stuff I want to do, videos I want to film.  That sort of thing.  And I think a bullet journal will be a good way to keep track of my life.  Easy, I can make it what I want it to be, and well, use stickers and all the pretty pens etc to make it mine. 

I did manage to do a good thing today.  I got my dressing room cleaned out.  Got rid of all the boxes, extra wrapping paper, stuff and it looks so much nicer.  I also decluttered a few makeup items I don't want anymore.  I need to get rid of even more, but well, its hard to get rid of makeup lol. At least for me it is. 

I've also decided to do a second "Wise Buying Challenge" for makeup.  I do have 1-2 things I want, but really, I don't need any new makeup for a while. I need to use what I've got and trust me, I've got A LOT!  And I've got a few new foundations I still need to review, and some I want to do a second opinion on, so I've got plenty to keep me busy.

I'm trying to get my YouTube channels to grow. I've now got two.  One that's beauty focused, the original Barbells and Beauty, and one that's fitness focused, Rhonda Gets Fit.   I think if I have a journal, where I schedule when to film my videos, it will be a good thing.  Might help me grow my channels just getting videos out there.  Can't hurt, now can it.

Been colder that SHIT here the last several days.  Like today, we were all happy it stayed above zero, as in Fahrenheit almost all day!  That's bad. I'm ready for spring.  Only a few more days and maybe it will get and stay warmer.  I can only hope.   I'm not a fan of winter, snow or cold weather.  My ancestors were not smart enough to go to a place with warm weather for a longer period during the year, and I'm not any smarter I guess.

So I'm still watching bullet journal YouTube videos, and trying to get in mind how I want to set mine up.  Mine will be very me I think lol.