Christmas and My New Job

We had a wonderful Christmas!  I hope you all did too!  

Ben and Ainsley were spoiled by everyone and got so many cute gifts, toys and clothes.  Their "big" gifts from Santa were their "iPads" which are really Kindle Fires.  They just call them iPads because Mommy and Daddy have iPads.  They love to watch PBS kids on them.  Let me know what other apps your toddlers love.

They also got a Mega Block castle and an art easel with paper, chalkboard and whiteboard.  Santa left them a message on it but he must have been getting pretty tired from his busy night...

Jeremy and I weren't supposed to exchange gift because we pretty much get what we want anyway but I found this gem in my stocking...

It's the Naked 3 pallette and I'm in LOVE!

He also made me this thoughtful gift with the medal and my race bib from the Des Moines Half Marathon last October...

I absolutely love it and I'm going to display it at work in my cubicle...speaking of work...

I LOVE my new job.  Quick description: I review prior authorization requests for Iowa Medicaid.  So if a drug is not on Iowa Medicaid's formulary and a prescriber wants their patient to have it the have to send us a request for prior authorization.  I review the request as well as our criteria for the drug and the patient's history (ie what else have they tried to treat this condition) and determine if the therapy is appropriate.  While it was sometimes frustrating dealing with PAs in the retail pharmacy it's interesting to see it from this side.  Obviously it's also important to ensure we are appropriately managing the funds allocated to pay for prescriptions while also giving patients appropriate treatment.  It's a fine line and not always as black and white as I thought it would be. 

So here's me listening to my music while I work.  I love being able to listen to my music and it keeps me focused otherwise I start listening to other people's conversations...which are usually one-sided since they're on the phone.  

I happened to take this picture to share with Jeremy how much I was enjoying myself some One Direction. Ha!

I hope everyone is having a great week and have a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Decorations

Fall decorations are down and Christmas is up! We got a new tree last year after Christmas and put it up for the first time this year. It is a little huge! Oh well - go big or go home, right?




This is how the table centerpiece originally looked. I got the greenery at Earl May. It is what they trim off the trees they sell and it was $1.99 for all that I have in these containers plus there was a little left over. The "cranberries" are from Hobby Lobby and were 50% off $1.27...whatever that is.






Then I decided to put water in them to keep the greenery alive and the plastic cranberry-looking things started to "melt." The water turned bright red and it started to smell really bad - pretty sure it was putting of some sort of toxic fumes. So needless to say I had to get rid of those and just have the greenery now. Maybe I'll look for some real cranberries to float in there.

Here is the mantel:



Bookshelves on either side of the fireplace:




And this glittery goodness is my favorite:



Show me your Christmas decor!