Blonde Ambition

2011-10-25T11:12:00.003-04:00

It's been quite a while since I've blogged. I mentioned a while ago that I wanted to create a new blog once I got married to document my new life with my new family. I've started that new blog and would LOVE if you all would follow me there. I am going to continue to follow all of my blog friends (you!) from over at my new blog and hope you will join me over there!

It has just been started so I'm still working on decorating it :)

http://www.thebellswillberinging.blogspot.com

Fast Approaching

2011-09-19T14:46:00.002-04:00

First of all, can I just give a shout-out to my Clemson Tigers??!! We ended Auburn's 17 game winning streak in the REAL Death Valley!!! So beautiful, haha! A GREAT way to start my wedding week!

My September work schedule has been completely messed up because of my wedding and my preceptor :) So I've had little time to blog between work and my one day off of cleaning up the house! But...we are now into single digits before the wedding! I can't believe how fast it's coming.

I'm so excited and I can't wait to marry my best friend on Saturday. We have a few more things to finish up for the wedding, so on my 2 days off (today and tomorrow) I've come home to help. I have to work Wednesday and Thursday, though. I have THE best preceptor in the world though. When I came in to work yesterday she said, "Erin you are NOT staying here all day on Thursday. You're leaving at three." Long story short, she's not making me stay until 7...or 8...or 9 as some days call for! She's letting me work half a day!! So thankful for her!

I can't wait for the wedding festivities to begin! And I really can't wait for my honeymoon! Two weeks in Hawaii...it's going to be amazing. Truth be told, this is our first vacation "together". We've gone on family vacays, but not just the 2 of us so I'm really ready!

I don't know if I'll have time to blog before then, but if not, here is a sneak peak of what's to come after the festivities are over!

Happy Wedding Week!

Remembering 9/11

2011-09-11T21:05:00.003-04:00

Like a lot of you, I have found myself thinking back to 10 years ago today and where I was when I first found out about the terrorist attacks. I was sitting in my first period class in high school about to take a test. My teacher's cell phone rang and her husband told her to turn on the tv, that something was going on we needed to see. She told him we were about to take a test and it would have to wait. He argued with her and she finally turned it on. She told us we could have the tv on as long as we continued to take our exam. When she turned it on, we saw one of the world trade towers on fire and reports that a plane had hit it. We had been watching for about 5 minutes when the second plane hit the second tower. The newscasters were saying, "I think another plane just hit the second tower. This cannot be an accident." I will never forget that moment, knowing that I saw the unfolding of a terrorist attack on my home soil. I still can't believe we watched that happen live. We never finished our exams. I finished my day at school, hearing little pieces here and there about the Pentagon, how the towers collapsed, and the heroic efforts of Flight 93.

I sat glued to my tv all afternoon and for days after. I tried to find some way to comprehend what had happened to our country. I ended up drawing a picture and writing a poem. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to share it on here. :) I was 15 and at a time where most 15 year olds have trouble figuring out who they are, we had the added job of figuring out what this attack meant for us and for our nation. Like most of you, I have found it very hard to believe that 10 years have passed since 9/11. It seems like just yesterday and the emotions, for me, are still just as raw today as they were 10 years ago. Post 9/11 continues to be our reality a decade later. I've watched many shows over the last few days and mourned all over again the loss of so much life. I've also reveled in the fact that we are a stronger nation today because of that heinous act and just as I did 10 years ago, I'll go to bed tonight praying for those who were affected (and still are) by 9/11.

A Day to Catch Up

2011-09-06T12:25:00.004-04:00

I just finished my four days in a row and am loving just laying around on the couch today! I have to work again tomorrow and Thursday so I'm not doing much of anything today except relaxing :) I've been catching up on the blogs I read and I'll probably clean the bathroom and I already have laundry going so I'm not being completely stationary. ;)

The start of my four days was really tough. I know it was inevitable in the field that I work in, but I had my first infant pass away. It was one of the hardest things to have to do. The situation was really difficult. This baby was so sick and the parents were no where to be found. They kept calling and saying they would be there soon and would never show. I am NOT passing judgment at all. I have never had a child, let alone one who was sick or one who was dying, so I have no idea how I would handle that. But this baby was all alone and in pain and we could do nothing until the parents showed up. It made me so angry that they just left their to suffer all alone. At one point I just went into the room and prayed for the baby, rubbed the baby's head, and told the baby it was loved and beautiful and would be ok. It was so sad to watch. My preceptor told me later that most deaths aren't like this one. Most of the time, the parents are always there even though it's so hard, so this was different. Either way it was hard.

It was a tough evening, but the best thing was getting back in there the next day and working hard for all of the other babies in the NICU right now. And I worked 3 more days in a row!

(*Just had to share this picture of Jovie, she LOVES bags, so when I opened the pantry door, she bee-lined it for the almost empty paper towel bag...)

I had to work over labor day weekend, but David enjoyed going to the Clemson game on Saturday! We got season tickets this year and we are about 20 rows from the field! Talk about nice seats :) Unfortunately, I won't be able to go to any of the games until at least after our honeymoon...bummer! But David and his friends will enjoy using the tickets so I'm happy about that!

David and I also decided that we want to try a new meal every week. It may not work too well until we get back from our honeymoon and get settled, but we did try something new last week! It was SO good! It's called, "Sour Cream Noodle Bake" and it's a PW recipe. The name sounds gross, but the picture looked so delicious, so we tried it and decided it's a keeper! I made a side of buttered french bread and salad. Definitely good the next day for lunch, too. :)

David and I are going to dinner tonight with some friends, so I'm looking forward to that. This weekend, we are headed back to Charlotte for Vanessa and Dave's wedding! I'm also having my last shower! Bittersweet, but I'm going to enjoy it! I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Weekend Fun

2011-09-01T15:58:00.005-04:00

I've had the last 3 days off from work....I needed them! Monday was crazy. Now I'm gearing up for a 4 day stretch with one day of break and then a day and a half. It's making me hyperventilate just thinking about it!! ;)

(The girls ready for bachelorette night!)

This past weekend, David and I drove to my hometown for a fun-filled weekend. Well, fun for me :) Saturday morning, we had the taste testing at the place we decided on for our rehearsal dinner. I am extremely excited about our rehearsal dinner! I took the leftovers home and had them for lunch on Monday--that's how good it's going to be!! We got a lot accomplished at that meeting and I'm glad because we are down to the wire, people! 24 more days and then I'm a married woman!

(Amy, me, and Jess on our side of the table at dinner...)

Saturday afternoon/evening/night was my bachelorette stuff. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this or not, but my bachelorette weekend was supposed to be at the beginning of August, but was canceled because I had to work. (There was no way I could get off for that when I'm taking 2 weeks for my honeymoon...so I was okay with that!) But luckily, my friends got together for me on Saturday and we had a blast :) We laid out by the pool and went shopping during the day, had dinner (and dancing!!) at Cosmo's that evening, and then opened presents (lingerie!!) and got through some of Father of the Bride before we all passed out :)

(Erin and Susan on their side of the table!)

My presents are so cute!! I am so excited to get to wear them on my honeymoon! None of them are raunchy, they are very tasteful and some of them are just downright adorable.

(My wonderful hostesses!)

Sunday, my Aunt Diane and cousin Amy held a bridal shower for me. Y'all, it was perfect! The food was absolutely delicious. My aunt made some chicken salad that I've already gotten the recipe for...and made. That's how good it was. This party was mostly for my mom's friends and she has some of the sweetest friends around. Everyone was so thoughtful and we all just had a really wonderful time.

(Mrs. Libby and me...she is the reason I went to Clemson!)

I ended up going back to Charlotte on Tuesday for a meeting with a cake decorator. I'm in charge of David's groom's cake and all I'm going to say is that thing is going to be awesome. I can't give away any hints, but I know he is just going to love it. He better love it, too, for what I'm paying for it!! ;) I know I already said this, but I can't believe I'm 3 short weeks from being married....what in the world?!

(Enjoying the party! :) )

And those 3 weeks are going to go by fast with the 20 bajillion workdays I have coming up! :)

What Did I Get Myself In To?

2011-08-22T14:32:00.004-04:00

I just finished a weekend of work and let me tell you, it was LONG. I was so exhausted last night, I went to bed at 10 and didn't get up until 10 this morning! I probably could have slept longer, too, but I didn't want to feel like I wasted a whole day ;)

Typically, each nurse gets 3 babies to care for. As an intensive unit, nurses can't have 6 patients like they do on basic nursing floors because the care level required is extensive. (Not taking a dig on floor nurses, they are the bomb.com because they CAN handle a 6 patient load. There is no way that even with all of my organizational skills that I would be able to handle 6 patients! They are AWESOME.) My orientation nurse (We'll call her JD for Jane Doe :) I don't want to be giving out too much info!) is awesome, so awesome that they constantly give her the hardest assignments because they know she can handle it and still give quality care to all of the babies. I don't mind it at all because I get to learn a lot about really sick kids. I also think that's why I leave everyday feeling totally overwhelmed :) On Friday, we had 2 of the same kids we'd been having, plus one new one. When I walked in, she asked me if I'd like to take all 3 today. Sooo, I took care of one chronic (has been there a few months), one gastroschesis baby (intestines outside the body), and one vented baby. I am proud to say I handled all of them, stayed on time with my care, and even helped re-intubate the vented baby! JD was impressed as well :)

I love my job and even though it's overwhelming, I love it for reasons like this: On Saturday, we admitted a baby who was too young. So young that it's eyes were still fused together. Can you imagine how tiny that is? On Sunday, JD and I were assigned to care for this baby. It wasn't on a ventilator so it was having to breathe for itself. Unfortunately, it was having a hard time doing that and spent most of the morning with many apneic episodes. (Note: lungs are the last thing to develop..there is no way this baby's lungs were developed enough to be breathing on its own...) JD decided that because this baby was so sick, I would care only for this one baby today and she would take the other two. I literally spent all morning keeping this baby breathing. The baby would do okay for a few minutes but then just got tired. Finally, the doctors decided to intubate. Thank goodness:) This tiny little baby could breathe now! Once on the vent, you could see the little eyes trying to open up and finally they did! They blinked a little bit and it was the coolest experience to know that you were there the first time a baby sees the world.

I will say though, that I was so nervous to be caring for this baby before it was put on the vent! I haven't had my neonatal resuscitation course yet and JD was like, "just keep the baby alive! I'll be back in a few!" I looked at her and said, "JD! Are you serious? Okay this is making me too nervous!" JD has a lot of confidence in me and I did in fact keep the baby alive :)

JD did pull me to the side later in the day though to tell me that I'm doing a great job. She said that she knows they give her hard assignments because she can handle them, but that they are hard for an orientee, let alone a new grad! A lot of the times, other orientees are sitting around doing nothing because they have one baby to care for and then nothing to do. All of our babies are so sick that we are constantly doing something and never get to sit down. JD sees all of this but also said that she's glad I was put with her because I'm smart and a hard worker and I am handling the assignments great and she doesn't know that any of the other orientees could do it!

I'm not bragging on myself, but it is really, really nice to hear that. I do leave work some days things "what in the world did I get myself in to?" but knowing that I'm doing a good job, even when I feel like I'm not makes me feel a little better. And being an advocate for these tiny little things makes it all worth it!

One last thing: we had a normal newborn come in for simple monitoring and I looked at that thing and thought, "gosh that's a big baby!" In reality, it was only 6 lbs. which is almost on the low side of healthy newborns! I've been hanging out with too many little ones lately that the normal size ones seem huge! ;)

Randoms!

2011-08-12T12:46:00.003-04:00

Well, I don't know about y'all, but I am more than ready for fall to be here! I know you aren't supposed to wish the time away, but I literally stood in my closet this morning for like 10 minutes looking longingly at the cute sweaters I can't wear yet! Our A/C has been acting up ever since David went to Germany (when it actually broke and they came and "fixed" it) so we are currently getting a new one installed. Marley loves people and he thinks everyone is here to play with him so I had to tell you this story.

There are 2 guys here putting in the new A/C unit. Marley was at the bottom of the stairs and one of the guys wanted to come down and Marley was sitting there barking at him and wagging his little nub...cute little boy just wanted to play! Well, I heard the guy stop on the stairs and Marley kept barking so I called his name. The guy on the stairs said, "does he bite???" Umm...no sir, he's about 5 pounds soaking wet but it sounds like you are a little afraid of him.

It just cracked me up that this huge guy was scared of my 5 lb. rat ;)

*My first day of work! Although, now I have a few pediatric scrub tops so I'll have to take pictures of those later! They are soooo darn cute!*

In other news, I am still loving my job. I still leave everyday feeling completely overwhelmed, but I love what I do so I'm pushing through it. :) All of the nurses assure me that it is completely normal to feel that way and they would be concerned if I didn't feel overwhelmed.

I had my first poop attack yesterday :) There is one sweet, sweet little baby who is just so sick that I have been taking care of. He's been sedated since he was born and they just took him completely off sedation this week so now he's one whole pound of attitude ;) They've also started increasing his feedings so mix his attitude with his bowel habits and you've got a potential mess on your hands! Because he's so sick, we try not to touch him too much and usually change his diaper when we do vital signs/assessments. Well, I went to change him and he'd pooped a little in his diaper..."good boy!" I said to him. I usually put the clean diaper underneath the dirty diaper so if they do start pottying, there is something else there to keep the bed clean. So I had everything in place and I lifted his legs to clean his bottom and....he SHOT a LINE of poop all the way across his isolette!! I was just stunned. How could someone so little create such a force that it shot out like that?! It was so funny and we ended up having to change all of his sheets. So much for my diaper theory :)

I also had the brilliant thought that once I was out of school I wouldn't have anymore books to read or tests to do. Wrong. Our nurse educator has delivered 2 new books for me to read and one of them belongs to a set of like 3 that I have to read. Each chapter had a test that I have to do and turn in! Yay....

I have this weekend off so today I cleaned the whole downstairs. I mopped all of the floors, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, kitchen counters. The upstairs needs to be done, but I'm not sure if I'll do it tomorrow or wait until next week. I don't get to spend too much time with David these days so I think we will do something fun tomorrow :) One thing that I hate is clutter. Two of our rooms downstairs (our future office and my future craft room...yes!) are just full of junk that we have no place to store right now. A lot of papers need to be filed, but I think it's pointless to do it when we'll just have to re-do it later! We have a "desk" and an old dining room hutch so I think when Dave gets home I'm going to get him to help me set up a make-shift office so we can start organizing some of the papers. We'll need to make a run to Target to get some filing cabinets. And I'm sure we'll find some other things at Target because I can never go in there without buying more than what I came for! :)

My friend Ashley got hooked on iced coffee from her sister-in-law and now she's got me hooked on it, too! So I've got myself a cup and I'm going to start tackling those NICU books :) I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

NICU

2011-08-08T15:26:00.002-04:00

*I would love to post pictures on this blog about things I've seen and done over the last 4 weeks, but I obviously can't do that :) I don't even feel right google searching NICU stuff and using pictures I've seen there. So that being said, I'm sorry this post is picture-less!*

Life has been so busy now that I have a J-O-B. 12 hour days can kick your butt pretty quickly :) I have to get up at 4:50 in the morning in order to make it to work by 6:45. And recently I haven't been leaving work until around 7:45pm! That is a loooonnngg day. By the time I get home, all I do is eat dinner and go to bed, haha! :)

But I wouldn't trade it...I absolutely LOVE my job. So I wanted to post a little about it.

I just started week 4 of orientation yesterday, so I'll back up to weeks 1-3.

Week 1-3.5: I was stationed in the NICU 2 for these couple of weeks. NICU 2 is where the "almost ready to go home" babies go. Obviously there are exceptions as some of the babies are there for >6 mo. depending on their needs and some babies end up back in NICU 1 if something goes wrong. But for the most part, this is where the "grower/feeders" stay. Grower/feeders are just the babies who have overcome their more serious obstacles and are just working on feeding through bottles or breast, keeping their weight up, making sure they can keep a good temp, etc. All the things they need to be able to do to go home and stay healthy. The first day I started, there were 80 babies in the NICU...that's a lot of babies! But my preceptor was amazing and showed me a good routine in order to get everything accomplished in a timely manner. Some days, we would have 2 hour "breaks" between feedings and assessments! We actually stayed caught up on charting. In NICU 2 I did assessments, changed diapers, held babies, fed babies, bathed babies, and helped teach parents how to do all of that as well. It may be one of the greatest places on earth! It is so cool to see a parents who are terrified to hold their infant slowly learn that they can actually take care of this tiny human.

During the beginning of my third week, I got called to the nurse manager's office and both NM's were in there. I thought, "Oh Lord, I'm already in trouble!" Haha :) But they just wanted me to know that I had already received a recognition from a parent during my second week of orientation. The mom wanted me to know that I am a great nurse and she was so glad that I took the time to explain things to her, was so gentle with her baby, and helped her learn certain things to do. One of the NM's said that parents in the NICU don't say positive things about nurses unless they absolutely mean them, so I was pleased that someone thought enough of me to say something. It definitely gave me hope that I will learn how to be a good nurse soon, ha!

Week 3.5-4: Halfway through my third week, I started in NICU 1. This is where all of the really, really sick babies are. A completely different experience. I worked 3 days in a row and left feeling completely overwhelmed each day. How in the WORLD am I going to learn everything I need to know in order to care for these babies?? Luckily, my NICU 1 preceptor is amazing (30+ years in NICU) and knows her stuff. I am learning so much from her. She taught me how to put in an IV my first day and I got it on my first stick. She was so proud of me...you can imagine how small baby veins are, it would be pretty difficult to stick those tiny things! But I'm pushing through the nerves and being overwhelmed and doing everything I can to become a good nurse. I know it has to be frightening for some parents to know someone so inexperienced is caring for their baby (with supervision...). So far in NICU 1 I've given a vaccine, cared for a ventilated baby, put in an IV, calculated meds on IV pumps, cleaned up lots of spit up ;), gotten an extremely dusky/purple, apneic baby to "come back" and breathe again, cared for 1 lb babies, full-term babies with respiratory issues, cared for babies on CPAP and HFNC, started phototherapy on bili babies, and have seen lots of crazy family dynamics.

I am excited and thrilled to be where I am, but this is definitely an eye-opening experience. I know feeling overwhelmed will pass once I figure out my way of getting things done, but it is scary to be the only one around when a baby starts going downhill. It would be for anyone and most of the nurses I have run in to are more than willing to help.

Luckily, I have 2 days off to catch up on my rest, then I'll be back at it again on Wednesday :) Sorry I've been MIA lately, but I'm just trying to get things settled and unfortunately it means a break from the blogging world every once in a while. Plus, I've been thinking about creating a whole new blog once David and I get married to document our life together...thoughts on that??

Bridal Shower!

2011-07-25T19:36:00.005-04:00

Saturday, my MOH Jess hosted a bridal shower for me at my grandparent's house! A lot of my really good friends were able to come and the few who couldn't were really missed! David and I got a lot of wonderful things and we are so blessed to have the support from our family and friends!

(On a side note: I don't want to forget this. I had my first week in the NICU and didn't tell them my shower was on Saturday. I didn't think they would make me work my very first weekend...well I was wrong! They had me scheduled to work Saturday...so I had to tell them about my party! They were so kind to let me off, but oh my gosh I felt so bad!)

Here are some pictures from the party :)

I love my girls! :)

My sweet cousin Amy. She wrote me a note that made me cry...she's more like a sister though :)

The pretty set up...minus the food!

Jess' beautiful flowers and the party favors I made! I love all of the bright colors!

This picture cracks me up. I got a purple girl toolbox and a bunch of tools! The look on my face in this picture makes it seem like I'm thinking, "what in the world do I do with these tools??!"

Lauren and Vanessa :) Love these girls!

I know I already have a picture of these pretty girls in this post, but this is my ALL-TIME favorite photo from the party. I can't believe my babies are all grown up and beautiful!

The guests played a few games and there were winners and prizes! I hope everyone had just as much fun as I did :) Thank you to everyone for making it such a special day!

Checking In!

2011-07-24T21:53:00.002-04:00

Not a long post tonight! I have to get to bed for Children's Hospital Orientation tomorrow, but I'm hoping tomorrow night to get up a post! Hopefully about my first week in the NICU (LOVE.) and my first bridal party this past weekend! :)

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this heat! As for me, I'm about ready for fall! ;) Not wishing away the time, but this is extreme!

Learning Curve...

2011-07-13T17:23:00.004-04:00

Hi all!

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but life is so busy right now! Wedding planning, moving, and starting a new job have just taken over.

This is what the majority of our house looks like:

And this is what it will all look like, little by little:

Man, I just love a clean kitchen :)

This past weekend, David and I went to the lake to spend some time with his family. Scott wanted to come too, so he drove down from Raleigh! It was a packed house! David's parents were there, Pop and Valeria, me, David, and Scott, and Uncle Evan and Aunt Delane. David's parents brought their dog Georgia and cat Blackberry and we brought our cat Jovie. (Marley hates the lake, so I left him with my mom, but I have SO missed him this week :( I get him back on Friday though!) Oh, and to top it off, David's cousin Andrew and his girlfriend Katye spent all day Saturday with us! I didn't get any good pictures, but the guys thought it would be fun to swim across the cove to another dock thinking it would be quite easy for them all. Boy were they wrong :) They huffed and puffed all the way there-- and back!

I started hospital orientation on Monday and these have really seemed like the longest.days.of.my.life. I have really gotten used to sleeping in, haha! Today started a week of nursing orientation and we had to clock in this morning. Well...this girl forgot to clock out. Yes, I am that person! The very first day and I forgot to clock out. I realized half way home and it was too late to turn around and go back so I'll have to fill out a form tomorrow....it's going to be a learning curve, haha! Hopefully it will be okay since it was the first day and all...

But, on Monday, I had David take a "first day of work" picture of me :) My mom always took "first day of school" pictures so I thought I'd add one to her collection.

Tomorrow is the first day we can wear scrubs since we have our badges now, so I will be all over that! I got Grey's Anatomy scrubs and oh.my.word. are they comfortable! I'll never be able to wear anything else ever again. I did order some pediatric tops today so they should be in in about a month. Hopefully they are as cute in person as they are in the pictures! No fear, I'll probably have a picture of my "first day in scrubs" too ;)

I start on the NICU unit next Wednesday and I'm so excited. This has been my dream since my sophomore year of high school and now I am actually getting to live it! I just hope I get to live it with air conditioning...

Unfortunately, our A/C has been acting up. It's about 500 degrees here and our air won't seem to cool past about 80 during the day. They've been to fix it about 3 times now and supposedly "fixed" it, but I'm thinking not. David is going to Germany for a few weeks and I just know that thing is going to poop out on me while he's gone! How in the world do you fix an A/C unit??!

Anyway, I feel kind of ridiculous about not clocking out so I'm going to go lift my spirits with a little Pinterest searching. Love that thing. :)

Happy Wednesday!

Comments!

2011-06-29T11:03:00.002-04:00

A HUGE "thank you" to Ashley for pointing out my comments are messed up! I changed my comments to a pop-up, so hopefully that has fixed the problem! If you read this, would you mind leaving a comment just so I know the comments section is working?? Thanks! :)

What Have I Been Up To?

2011-06-28T17:44:00.005-04:00

I haven't updated in a while! I have thoroughly been enjoying my nice break. No worrying about passing the NCLEX, no worrying about finding a job, no worrying about homework...it's been nice! So what have I been up to?

I've been doing a lot of this: My mom and I have been watching all of the Harry Potter movies to get ready for the last movie coming out in July. I think I'm pretty lucky to have grown up in the world of Harry Potter :) (I used to dress up in my mom's black graduation gown and play with a pointer as a wand...I am not ashamed.)
My mom and I also started working on wedding programs...I can't believe my wedding is less than 3 months away!
I am loving Pinterest! I didn't understand it at the beginning but I can't get enough of it now! I found a very cute nail style using newspaper clippings and it didn't turn out fantastic but I think with some practice it will be very cute! I couldn't get a picture of it, though. Ugh.
Not only am I loving pinterest, I'm loving the styles I've been finding on there! I've decided I need a huge shopping spree, haha! I loved all of the yellow and gray outfits so when I was at Target and ran across a cute yellow cardigan with rosettes...I had to buy it! This is what I wore today: I loved the white shorts and how the yellow and gray looked! I might need some cute jewelry though... :)
Marley has been busy napping today. Doesn't he look precious? His ears stick up even when he sleeps, haha.
I also took pictures in all of my "party" dresses so that I can match up my jewelry and also make it easy to look for jewelry when I'm out shopping. Having a picture of the neckline will hopefully make it easier to find jewelry that will match!

The power has gone off twice while I've tried to update blogger, haha! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! :)

A Story for the Books

2011-06-16T17:34:00.004-04:00

This is a story that I just don't ever want to forget. I have worked so hard to get where I am and everything all seemed to just come together all at once! It may not be interesting to you, so I won't be offended if you stop reading now, but it's a story I want to remember! :)

Last Friday (06-10-11), I had an interview for a position in the NICU. My dream job. I worried and prepped for that interview for days on end! I was supposed to meet the nurse manager (NM from now on) downstairs in the lobby of the hospital near the piano, so when I arrived 10 minutes early, that's where I stood. I made the mistake of standing right next to a huge sign in the shape of a teddy bear and people were asking me all about it! I had no idea what it was for, but one man in particular kept up a conversation with me and come to find out, his wife worked in the ICU unit I did my internship in last summer! She ended up coming down to meet her husband and I got talking with her and found out she was great friends with my preceptor, too! Such a small world :) I was still talking to them when the NM walked up and the man just kept saying, "Oh, she'll hire you, she'll give you a job!" I think I was mortified, ha! I had never met the NM in my life and here is this guy telling her she'll hire me! I was so embarrassed....not a great start to the interview, I'd say!

I came prepared with my resume and she asked me a bunch of questions and even though I had prepared, I was still a nervous wreck! I had some questions for her and then she gave me a tour of the unit. I could not read her at all. As she was walking me out she made the comment, "I have 5 positions, but I don't think our budget will allow 5, I will most likely only be hiring 2." I pretty much took that to mean...."don't be offended when I call you and tell you you didn't get the job!" Ha! She told me she had interviews all the next week and I could expect to hear from her either way sometime the week after that. Like I said in my last post, I rehashed every. single. thing that went on in that interview--poor David! :) He assured me I was fine and that I did great and I just convinced myself otherwise.

Flash forward to yesterday. I had an interview in the MS-ICU where I did my internship last summer. My granddaddy drove me down, just like he did for my interview last year. I interviewed with my NM boss and nurse educator that I worked with! I hate to admit this, but I didn't really prepare as much for this interview. I knew that they wanted me (NM had been e-mailing me quite a bit and kept saying he "couldn't wait for me to be a part of their team" and they had been "waiting a while" for me to graduate and pass etc.) and I had already prepped my answers from my last interview. They were just as friendly as I had remembered them and they asked me 2 PAGES worth of questions! And they both wrote my answers down! What?! I had my answers ready, but I couldn't believe they asked me 20 questions, haha! I figured that once they were finished, I would hear from them pretty soon.

Pretty soon turned out to be right after the questioning was over. The NM told me they already knew they wanted to hire me. I could. not. believe. it. I was being offered a job on the spot. Fortunately, the NM is a great guy and he knew I had interviewed with the NICU and basically told me he wanted me to be 100% sure if I chose to come to the ICU. In his experienced opinion, if you entered a job with any doubt in your mind that you may have wanted something else, you won't be happy. I agreed and he gave me until Monday to give him an answer.

I was ecstatic...I had a job if I wanted it! But I didn't know what to do about the NICU position. I knew I wouldn't hear about that job until the following week and I wouldn't have enough time to find out if they wanted me. I had a long talk with my granddad on the way home and we thought it would be good if I went ahead and e-mailed the NM of the NICU who I interviewed with. So when I got home, that's the first thing I did. I basically just told her that I had interviewed and received an offer from another unit in the hospital, that my passion was the NICU and I didn't know how to handle this situation, but I was wondering if I was being considered for a position in the NICU.

In my head at that moment, I really thought I would hear back from her in a few days and she would either say, " I'm sorry, I can't share that information with you" or "I'm sorry, but we are looking for someone else." (Would make my decision an easier one, though!)

In REALITY, this is what happened: I sent the e-mail. Literally 2 minutes later, I got a phone call from the NICU NM and this is how the convo went:

- NM: Can I please speak with Erin?

- me: This is her. (The period seems to serious, the exclamation point seems to excited...I was somewhere in between, haha!)

- NM: Erin, this is _____. I just received your e-mail and I was calling to tell you, you better stop interviewing for jobs, haha! I want you here in the NICU with us! I am officially asking you if you would like to accept an offer to work in the NICU.

-me: Oh my gosh! Thank you so much (smiling and jumping up and down as quietly as I could....)!!! That is wonderful!

-NM: Your interview was phenomenal, by the way.

-me: Thank you so much! This is so great!

After that, I started freaking out a little bit and asked her if I could just have the night to get my thoughts straight and I would call her tomorrow to let her know for sure. She was so kind and agreed.

This morning, at 9:30am I ACCEPTED my first ever nursing position in my dream job after having two people really, really wanting me to come work for them. I am just in shock. I have worked so hard for this and I am so excited to start this new phase in my life! When I spoke with the NM this morning, she said, "I told ____, I can't do anymore interviews until I know we have Erin! We really need her!" I guess I did better on the interview then I thought--and David loved that he had been right all along ;)

To say that I am humbled is an understatement. I just can't believe all of this happened to me in a 24 hour period! I can't wait to see what the future holds!!

Will I Get a Summer?

2011-06-14T17:28:00.005-04:00

Things have been moving right along for me! I think it's because I spend the weekdays in Charlotte and the weekends in Greenville. I've been taking a load of my stuff down each time I go so the end trip won't be so much of a big deal! And it seems that the "big trip" may be coming sooner rather than later.

I headed down to Greenville Thursday because I had my NICU interview on Friday. I got a phone call Friday morning from the MS-ICU (where I did part of my internship last summer) and they wanted me to come in for an interview as well! I made plans for that interview for Wednesday (tomorrow).

My interview went as well as can be expected I think! I couldn't read the interviewer at all so I have no earthly idea if she liked me, wants me, or anything! Of course I rehashed everything after I left and there is nothing I would have changed about what I said so if it's not in the cards for NICU then they were just looking for someone else :) She did happen to give me a tour of the unit and oh my gosh. Those little angels! After seeing the unit, I have no doubt I would enjoy it. Hopefully I will hear from her after Monday of next week.

I got home a little before David did and when he walked in the door, he had these little pretties for me:

Isn't he amazing?! I was rehashing every little detail with him and he was so sweet to pick me up some flowers on his way home :) I am a lucky girl!

I also got my first ever mail at David's house- my official certificate that I passed the licensure exam and I really am a registered nurse! Officially official as I like to say.

David works as an electrical engineer for BMW and because it's a german company, there are a lot of germans who work there. One of David's co-workers had some of his "group" over for dinner Friday night and we went! It was so much fun! They cooked out pork, had potato salad, some vegetable dish, and a delicious salad. I spent a lot of the time trying to decipher what they were saying, but they were all very kind to speak to me in english :) For dessert, we had espresso and home-made tirimisu! I wish I had some right now, it was so good! David has already decided we need to have them over for dinner once I move down--I think it sounds like a wonderful idea!

Always in some kind of soccer paraphernalia! :)

Saturday David watched the movie 300 and I learned my way around Pinterest! Y'all, I am still not 100% sure how to use it, but so far I am loving it!! We also took a trip to the mall and I found my dress I'm going to wear on the plane to Hawaii!!! I wanted a cotton maxi-dress for the plan ride and some cute wedges--found those too! The only thing left is a cute jacket to go on top in case the plane is cold :)

That evening, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings with another co-worker of David's- Phil, and his wife Emily. I had never met them before, but they are a very sweet couple. After dinner we saw Hangover 2 which in my opinion is equally just as hysterical as the first one! I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard!

This picture just cracks me up. I guess Marley hadn't had enough attention over the weekend because he came and sat right in my face when we got home!

I headed home sometime in the afternoon on Sunday and while I love coming home, I sure do miss David. I am about ready to be in one spot and not going back and forth every weekend! And hopefully, fingers crossed, one of the 2 positions I have interviewed for will want to hire me and I can make my final move to Greenville! :)

PS- Monday afternoon, we went to the graduation party of a kid mom had in 1st grade and someone I used to babysit! She had 2 of the 3 kids...crazy. How in the world are kids I babysat old enough to go to college??! His younger brother (2 years younger) couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that I was drinking a beer and said, "at my graduation party, make me a deal that you won't drink there...that's too weird!" And my mom promptly looked at him and said, "she may not be able to drink at your graduation party!" They fist-bumped that comeback and I started planning baby names, ha!

Short Post!

2011-06-07T17:59:00.002-04:00

Hi all!

Short post today! It's been quite a busy day and it's not over yet! But I just wanted to check in:)

Today I:

Okay'ed my wedding party favors!! They are so cute! I don't normally keep things I get at weddings...they don't really mean anything to me because they don't have any relevant info for me! (I mean, it's not my wedding date...it's yours??) So I wanted something that represented us, but that people could use. So...David and I decided on shortbread cookies in the shape of bells!! (Our last name will be Bell...well, his is already...mine will be.) The icing is cream colored with purple trim and our monogram initials in the middle! I love the way they turned out! We are going to put them in clear bags and tie them with purple ribbon :)
I also went looking for my bridesmaid gifts! I know what I want, but the store didn't have quite what I was looking for. I looked through their catalogue and the lady was so nice! She ordered one pair of each thing I was looking at and when they come in she is going to call us to come look. Then I can choose my favorite out of those :) I am so excited that things are moving right along!
I also received a phone call from the hospital in Greenville about an interview for the NICU!!!!! This would be a dream job for me and my interview is on Friday at 2:00pm. If you happen to think of me around that time, I would be so thankful if you would send up a prayer for me! I'm not getting my hopes up but it is still very exciting :)
On top of that high, I also received an e-mail from the nurse manager I worked for last summer in Greenville! (MS-ICU) He told me he wanted me to apply for 3 positions he is posting so we can get that interview process moving along, too! Oh my gosh y'all, I am over the moon that in one day I have 2 potential places of work! I loved working in the ICU last summer and while NICU would be my first choice, I know I would love working in the ICU as well so I am hoping that one of these 2 will pan out for me :)
And tonight, I am going with my mom, aunt, cousin Amy, and close family friends, Mrs. Wanda and Karen to see the movie Bridesamaids. I am so excited because I've heard it is good!!

Last, I would love it if you would say a prayer for my sweet friend Mandy. Sunday morning, her long-time boyfriend went into cardiac arrest and passed away. He was only 30 years old. I am so heartbroken for her and I can't even begin to imagine what she is feeling right now. I know it would mean a lot to her to know so many people are lifting her up in prayer! Thank you :)

Now, I hope everyone has a wonderful hump day tomorrow! Anything interesting going on in your lives?? I need to live vicariously through you now that I have nothing going on!! :)

Motivation?

2011-06-05T19:10:00.002-04:00

This marks the 2nd time today I've tried to sit down and come up with a blog! Apparently I'm lacking some motivation right now!! :)

Saturday, David and I took a trip to Dahlonega, GA for one of his Clemson teammate's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and the reception was at a ranch in the middle of the mountains so it was a wonderful view! I left my camera at home so I have no pictures :( I'm apparently really bad at taking pictures....maybe I should work on that.

Today we slept in and I officially decided what I want to do with my free time! I'm going to continue learning how to sew and start making jewelry. Unfortunately no job leaves me with little money to be "crafty" right now so I'm going to have to work with what I already have, which isn't much. It'll work out! And to top it off, I have been figuring out how I want my future craft room to look! David was just thrilled about that, ha!

Othar than that I don't have much going on so I'll leave you with a list of what's on my agenda!

Tomorrow I am going to watch one of my long-time friend's sweet little boy! It's so hard for me to believe we are already at the baby-making age but he is so precious. Lunch and catching up is also on the list ;)
My uncle coaches a legion baseball team here and they have a game tomorrow. I like supporting my family and this is what he loves to do so I love going to watch!
Tuesday I'm meeting with Edible Art for my wedding favors!! I am so excited about my favors! I'm hoping they are going to be as cute as I think they will be...and then my grandmother and I are going to work on bridesmaid gifts :) Things are moving right along in the wedding department and it's a good thing, too! It's only a little less than 4 months until the big day. (I also picked up a couple things at the wedding this weekend that I don't want in my wedding, but also some things I'd like to incorporate!)
Ummm....that's it for this week, ha! So sad, right?

Now I'm off to spend some time with my puppy...I missed him this weekend! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! :)

In Between

2011-06-02T20:54:00.003-04:00

I am currently sitting on David's couch while he plays Call of Duty or something like that. I just painted my nails and thought I'd blog a bit! I'll say, typing with wet nails is interesting. It's kind of like "hunt and peck" but I'm not really hunting for the letters! Also, I'm right-handed so the nails on my left hand look way prettier than then ones on my right...bummer.

I came down this afternoon before Dave got off work and the air conditioner in my car was not working. Okay, it was kind of working. It was blowing air, but it was not blowing cool air. It's been in the high 90's this week and my car would pick today to lose the ability to cool me off! I finally just turned the A/C off and rolled the windows down. It was slightly cooler. Once I got here, I got out and my shorts were soaked*, ha! Oh well....

I am in the middle of getting things moved from my house to my new home with David. I brought my first load down today and will spend tomorrow putting it all away. I brought all of my Christmas stuff (4 tubs, 1 box, and 1 bagged christmas tree...) and all of the books I wanted to bring with me (4 boxes). It's kind of bittersweet...I'm really looking forward to this next stage of my life but I'm kind of sad to be leaving family!

I know, 1 1/2 hours away isn't bad at all, but I've been within 5 minutes of my whole family since I was 5!! And, some of y'all can attest to this, but I used to have the worst homesickness ever! Sometimes I would even have to be taken home in the middle of the night at sleep overs. Ugh, I'm still embarrassed about that!!

So needless to say, this will be a transition for me, but I am looking forward to getting all settled in eventually! (I'm bringing a load down each time I come :)...and now that I have nothing to do, that should be often!!)

This weekend, one of David's roommates/teammates from Clemson is getting married so we will be spending our weekend celebrating with friends! I love weddings because they are getting me excited for my very own in just about 4 months!

I guess I don't have much more to talk about now...any ideas to keep a girl busy?? (Besides apply for jobs, ha!) Happy weekend, everyone! :)

*I went back to re-read my blog and just thought I should define that they were soaked with sweat...not pee. I am potty-trained! ;)

Not How I Thought It Would Happen...

2011-06-01T14:22:00.004-04:00

I'd definitely say it's been a while since my last update! I have been studying non-stop for the dreaded NCLEX exam. I took my exam on Monday.

I didn't tell anyone when I was taking the exam. Aside from my mom, David, and a few of my close nursing friends, no one knew. I was so scared I was going to fail and then I'd be embarrassed when people started asking me about it. I just didn't want to even imagine the disappointment!

Unfortunately, some things messed up my "secret plan". I started feeling kind of puny about a week ago. Not totally bad, but not that great. I figured it was just the stress of the situation getting to me. After all, I was studying pretty much 24/7! Well. My symptoms continued to get worse over the next few days and Sunday (the day before my exam!) rolled around and I just couldn't eat and I was starting to feel pretty bad.

I will spare you the gruesome details (and believe me, they were gruesome!) but I ended up in the ER Sunday NIGHT. Nothing like a trip to the ER to keep your mind off the NCLEX!

*David couldn't resist a picture...he also said, "It's Murphy's law--anything that can go wrong, will go wrong..." Me and Murphy aren't on great terms right now... ha!

I was diagnosed with an intestinal bacterial infection. Yuck. But I got my antibiotic at 11:00pm and they told me I wasn't contagious so I would be good to go for my exam in the AM!! I wasn't feel too great the next morning but I went to my test anyway!

75 questions and 60 minutes later I was walking out of there and back to bed! I never thought I would end up in the ER the night before the biggest exam of my life, but apparently I was well prepared. I found out today that I PASSED!!!!!

I am now officially an RN, BSN!!!

Thank you for all of your thoughts recently and now I will have more time to update my blog!

Graduation Weekend #2

2011-05-19T20:51:00.005-04:00

I've been MIA for the last week because I have been studying 24/7 for the NCLEX, the nursing licensure exam. I'm not telling anyone when I'm going to take it in case I don't pass, haha ;) I just don't want to deal with everyone's sympathy if I don't make it. BUT I am going to pass and I have post-its all over saying just that! So hopefully I can psyche myself into passing!

This past weekend we had another graduation in my family. My cousin Scott graduated from Duke University's Master of Engineering Management program!

Scott has an apartment up there so David, Marley, and I stayed with him and Kylie! Aren't they just the cutest couple? :)

Saturday was his hooding ceremony and he was so funny! He was half way across the stage before they even called his name :) We were definitely proud of him and to top it off, we found out earlier Saturday that he had an internship set up that will (fingers crossed!) hopefully turn in to a full time job! Yes!

*I love this one...mom fixing the hood before the ceremony :)

*I love this one too...mom looks so happy and proud!

We went out to dinner at a mexican restaurant after the ceremony and it was so delicious! Although, we had to pay for chips and salsa...what kind of mexican restaurant do you have to pay for chips at?! We were all really exhausted so we went back to Scott's apartment and watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and hit the hay.

*And just because he is so handsome... :)

*And just because this is probably one of the best pictures of us!

We got up early Sunday for brunch at Bob Evans--Scott's request :) Then we headed to the Duke Chapel for the diploma presentations.

It was beautiful inside the chapel, but the serenity didn't keep people from whooping it up for their family graduates! It was a great ceremony and a wonderful weekend.

Gosh, we sure do have a lot to celebrate in this family! So proud:)

Nursing Graduation :)

2011-05-09T18:01:00.012-04:00

Warning: This is a long post with a lot of pictures!! :)

This past week was all about graduation from nursing school. Tuesday was the Pinning Ceremony and Wednesday was Blessing of the Hands, which you can read about here. Thursday, the nursing girls had a "Bachelorette Party" for the three nursing girls who are getting married this year.

*Me and Van, the 2 September brides!*

*The whole group! Love you girls:) *

We went to a new restaurant called San Antonio's. I loved it! And actually, now through May, everything on the menu is $5!! (I think it's a marketing ploy for the restaurant, but most of the entrees range from $13-$22, so $5 is a pretty good deal!) So needless to say, I will be going back there a few times in May :)

Saturday was graduation day! My future in-laws came in to town to help me celebrate and I'm so thankful for their support--and the fact that they are letting me marry their son! ;)

We got to the school about 8:30 am and grabbed a row of seats! I got a couple of pictures with my family and then a few with my friends. Then it was about time to line up.

* Me and my handsome granddaddy*

*Me and Les before graduation!*

*My family all in a row, there to support me!*

The nursing girls were in the back of the line so we were last to graduate. Word at the graduation is when they announced the Presbyterian Nursing School graduates (we all stood up to be recognized), we were the loudest group there! We were so thrilled to be finished and relieved to finally be at this point! As we walked across the stage, we were given our diploma and then hooded. (Colleges and universities used to hood their bachelor graduates, but most have stopped. Queens still does and it was a great experience!)

*Receiving my diploma!*

*Getting hooded by my grandmother's friend, Dr. Chris Allegretti. It was such an honor to be hooded by someone I know and look up to!*

Once we were all finished walking, the graduation was pretty much over. After the recessional we all went to meet our families. I was so excited!

Then we got a slew of pictures with my family :)

*My favorite aunt. I sure do love her!*

*My wonderful, supportive mom :) I love her, too!*

*Such a supportive fiance! :)*

*My wonderful cousins!*

*My incredibly supportive, wonderful grandparents. I wouldn't be anywhere without them!*

After graduation, Leslie's family held a graduation luncheon at their house.

*Me, Les, Vanessa, and Seana at Leslie's graduation luncheon!*

They are some of the kindest people in the world and we all really enjoyed getting to spend some time relaxing, eating, and enjoying each other's company! Once we left there, we made a pit stop at Vanessa's house because her family was throwing a graduation party there as well! We were pooped, but my family dinner was that night :) We had a great dinner outside on the deck, opened presents and spent the evening hanging out.

If you've made it this far, congratulations! :) Sunday we made breakfast for my mom and David's mom and that pretty much sums up our week. It was such a wonderful weekend and I am so thankful for all of the support and love from my family and friends through this experience. Now...if I can only pass NCLEX! :)

Graduating...

2011-05-07T07:42:00.001-04:00

Today, at 10:00 am, I will be GRADUATING nursing school! I am so excited!! :) I'm sure I'll do a full length post all about this special day later!! :) Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!

Graduation Week

2011-05-05T12:57:00.005-04:00

Man, I have SO much free time now that I'm not constantly working on nursing stuff! I've already cleaned my room and my bathroom and re-watched the royal wedding (I know, I know. It's weird. I don't care!). And now I'm working on updating my blog! Monday I took my last nursing final (and to brag just a little...I ended up with at 97 on it!!) and that was the start of graduation week! When we left the exam, we all felt like we still had a million things to do for school! It hadn't actually hit us that we were completely done with nursing school! Lucky for us, the school had some things planned for us.

Tuesday afternoon, we had the Pinning Ceremony. The pinning ceremony welcomes new nurses into the field of nursing and we receive pins from our faculty. It was a really nice ceremony and Leslie won the Senior Nursing Award!! I was so proud of her :)

*She also had to give a speech and she did AMAZING!*

*My grandparents came to the Pinning Ceremony. They are always so supportive!*

*Receiving my pin! I'm letting my hair grow out for my wedding...I can't wait to cut it off! Ha!*

Yesterday, we had the Blessing of the Hands Ceremony. It was such a beautiful ceremony and I think it really hit home with us that we were through. We have made such wonderful friends over the last 2 years and it seems too soon to leave them!

*Getting my hands blessed by one of my favorite professors! (Photo courtesy of David O'Neal)*

*I sure do love these girls! (Photo courtesy of David O'Neal)*

Tonight, all of the girls are getting together to throw a "bachelorette" party for the three girls who are getting married! I think it is really just an excuse to get together again ;) But whatever the reason, I'll take it because I am going to miss these girls so much! Saturday is graduation and I think it is going to be bittersweet.

David's family will be coming up for my graduation and we are having a family party Saturday night! I am so looking forward to it! I just hope the weather cooperates! :)

Just a Few More Hours...

2011-05-01T22:49:00.007-04:00

...and I will officially be done with nursing school! I have one last final tomorrow at 9:00am and I am more than ready for it to be done :) We have our class picture following the final and after that, I will be packing up those scrubs and putting them far, far away! (Until I get a nursing job, ha!)

But I just thought I'd update before going to bed! (After all, I don't have any more nights to stay up late before school!)

Thursday night, I spent the night with one of my nursing friends, Leslie, (who also happens to be a bridesmaid!) and we got up at 4:30am on Friday to watch the festivities. We kept saying over and over how glad we were that we decided to get up and watch everything live! We made a pot of coffee and just thoroughly enjoyed watching this fairy tale come true! I'm marrying a soccer boy so I was loving David Beckham :) His hair looked mighty nice combed to the side!

via

I also think Prince Harry is just the cutest thing (Chelsy Davy is so not, though...) and I thought it was so adorable how he turned around to see Kate walking down the aisle! And he seemed to have done a wonderful job keeping his brother relaxed on his big day :)

via

And Kate looked phenomenal. She is so beautiful and I really don't think the Queen could have asked for a more perfect woman for the future King of England to end up with.

via

I almost cried when Prince William told her she looked beautiful.

via

She held herself with such grace through the whole experience, but I loved her response when she first came out on the balcony, "Oh, wow!" They were all there for her!

I taped it, and yes, I've watched it all over since then :) (And since my semester officially comes to an end tomorrow, I will have ample time to watch it again and again throughout the week, I'm sure!)

Still on the same topic, my mom and I went to the mall Friday afternoon and look at what we saw:

Yes, even here in America, people were dressed up like the Duchess of Cambridge :)

But, I think even more exciting was the fact that my mom and I got locked in to Pottery Barn Kids with Usher! He was in town for a show and happened to be in PB Kids when the whole mall realized he was there. They kept wanting to take pictures of him and he was not happy about it so the poor lady who owned the store shut down and wouldn't let anyone in. So we had to stay put until they took him out the back way. I didn't get a picture of him because he was, well, angry, haha! I posted on FB that I saw him and one of my friends said, "no picture, then it didn't happen!" So, I saw him a while later and took a picture of him then! Unfortunately, it's his back, but by that time he had the mall cops taking him wherever he wanted to go :)

Oh! And an update on the baby bunnies: they all hopped the nest early last week. David was a little upset, but I told him that he had been a good daddy to the babies and they were going to do well out in the world ;) Kate Middleton got to marry her Prince, and I can't wait to marry mine :)

Have a great week, everyone!

Royal Wedding!

2011-04-28T20:51:00.002-04:00

Y'all, I am so, so, so excited about the royal wedding tomorrow! I know a lot of people are sick and tired of the royal wedding and to that I say POO ON YOU. Things like this don't happen often and it's much happier media coverage than a lot of things these days. I like focusing on happy things :)

I wil certainly be getting up at 4:00am to watch everything live! And I even have a final at 1:30pm tomorrow! Wedding trumps final in my book :)

But really, all of this media is making me so excited for my own wedding coming up in a few months :) I feel just as happy with my Prince Charming as Kate looks with hers. It's just beautiful.

Just wanted to drop in and say hello and I hope you all enjoy the wedding if you watch it!

What Do I Do Now??

2011-04-25T14:04:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend:) David came up Thursday evening after work (he had Good Friday off!) so we got an extra day together! I loved it!

Well, it's almost over, everyone! I had my last day of nursing school last Thursday! I still have finals but graduation is fast approaching! Now that I have no papers or projects, I'm left with so much extra time and I have no idea what to do with it all! I realize I should probably be studying, but I just haven't gotten myself to that point yet, haha! I'm definitely not complaining about the extra time but for the last 2 years all I've done is nursing work 24/7 and now it's just down to studying for finals and the NCLEX.

So, I've taken the liberty of meeting friends for coffee and am currently watching the first season of Sex and the City. I'm thinking I may enjoy all this time once my brain stops trying to work overtime, ha!

Anyway, David and I have been working on wedding stuff but we were having a very hard time figuring out where we wanted to go! Friday, we decided to head up to AAA to see what they had to say. Long story short-- I think we have figured out where we want to go :) I'm going up there again today to finalize everything. I don't want to say just yet, but assuming everything goes through today, I'll probably post about it later!! But, I am very excited about it and I've never been before. (For those of you who know me, I suppose that narrows it down a little for you since you know where I've been!!)

I guess all I have left to talk about is the baby bunnies! It stormed really bad at David's over the weekend and we were almost sure that the baby bunnies couldn't have survived. So I was on pins and needles last night waiting for David to get home and check on them! Well, lo and behold, the bunnies did survive and not only did they survive, but they grew!!

They are so much bigger than they were 4 days ago! Still very cute though :) I'm thinking they will be leaving the nest soon, but I'm so glad they were safe in the storm.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Tune in later for an update on the honeymoon!! :)

Easter Surprise!

2011-04-19T20:30:00.003-04:00

First of all, thank you all for the comments on the double band! I'm still not sure what I want to do, but I'll let you know once I decide! The weekends go by too fast, don't they? This past weekend the nursing girls and I were supposed to walk in the MS Walk on Saturday morning. But I'm sure everyone saw/experienced the nasty weather we had here Friday night and into Saturday so the walk was canceled but they hosted a cook-out Friday evening instead! David was planning to come up for the walk so he came anyway Friday night and we met everyone at the cook out. We didn't stay long and all decided to go to dinner at San Antonio's. It's a new restaurant, kind of Texas meets Mexico but not quite Tex-Mex... it was pretty good!

Saturday, David and I got up and headed down to Greenville to meet his parents for dinner at none other than my favorite place: NAMI!! Oh my Lord it was delicious. I tried out my new hair style again:

And here is a picture of us on the way down:

Lighting was terrible...major fail, ha!

It was nice to catch up with my future in-laws over sushi and wine! I didn't get any pictures of the group, though.

David and I really enjoyed getting to spend some time together, too. We did have a little excitement this weekend! David took Marley out to potty and quickly called me to come outside. I ran out to Marley standing near a pile of grass and fur right below our deck. He was just standing there sniffing at it and looking up at me and David like, "Well? What is it?" While we were standing there, the pile of grass moved. We were so surprised so David started moving the grass out of the way and low and behold: there was a nest of baby bunnies!! Just in time for Easter :)

Aren't they so cute?! David just mowed the yard on Wednesday so we figured they had to be less than 4 days old. We did some research to make sure they weren't abandoned and didn't need us to call wildlife rescue. We decided they were okay, and a good thing, too! Sunday night, David called me to let me know Momma bunny was at the nest caring for her babies:)

So far, Momma bunny visits once a day, at night (to make sure predators can't see where her babies are) and David checks on them twice a day to make sure Momma is really doing her job. He said they are a tiny bit bigger and kicking around a lot more. So precious :) I took a video of our little Easter bunnies; the sound is just static and the babies weren't making any noise, but they were wiggling all around!

I hope everyone has enjoyed our Easter surprise like we have! Oh, and just so everyone knows, Marley was a very good boy. He found the nest, sniffed at it and then just looked at us. He didn't try to dig into it or anything. It's like he knew there were babies in there :) (And he usually loves to chase booger bunnies out of the yard!) So we were very proud of our sweet boy!

Lazy!

2011-04-14T19:49:00.006-04:00

Um... y'all. I haven't updated my blog since like April 4th or something. How sad is that?! Haha! The last few weeks of school have been super busy. I've had a few papers to write and 2 presentations to prepare for. As well as NCLEX predictor tests. I still have 2 papers to write but...next week is my last week of school! Please, be excited for me, ha! Lucky for me, my last PSL clinical was last Friday so tomorrow I just have a review on how well I've tutored (or how bad??) this year. I have a paper to write, but I needed a break tonight so I thought I would update you on all the random things in my head now. (I know some of you are nursing students, too...do you always have a million things running through your head??! It sometimes doesn't even stop when I go to bed, ha!)

I've recently been noticing that my eyes are having trouble transitioning from reading to just normal looking at things. It started taking upwards of like 10 minutes for them to completely adjust back and I was starting to get concerned. My sweet friend (and bridesmaid!) Leslie's dad is an opthamologist so I made an appointment to see him. (He even did my Lasik eye surgery!) I had to sit through the whole ordeal and got my eyes dilated:

disclaimer: I realize this picture is VERY scary and I apologize, I have no shame, ha!

My pupils were huge! And it was particularly sunny that day so sunglasses were my best friend :) Luckily, he chalked it up to A) I'm getting old. Thank you for that, by the way. and B) They are tired from reading and studying so much (He knows firsthand since Leslie is in class with me!) -- hopefully it will go away once I graduate and stop having to concentrate on so much material. Other than that, my eyes are 100% healthy:)

(I'm also trying to visit every doctor before I move, sniff sniff, and have to find all new doctors! One down, 3 more to go!)

I've also been looking at wedding bands. My engagement ring is part of a set, but the actual ring hasn't been bought yet. A lot of my friends have been getting double wedding bands and I kind of like the look. I'm having trouble deciding. So, the other day, I tried on one of my friend's double bands. (Is that bad luck???) And I really liked the sparkly look of it! :) What do you think?:

PS- nursing girls, don't you just want to stick an IV in the veins in my hand?? They are huge, ha!

I still have to go with David to look at rings at some point so I have time, but what is the blog consensus? Do you like the double look or is the simple wedding band and engagement ring a better fit for my long, skinny fingers??

Last weekend, my mom and I went to dinner at Pike's with some of her friends and then to the Checkers Hockey game. (It was cold in there and no one lost any teeth. Soccer is much more fun to watch ;) ). We had a great time though, and I tried out a new hair style. My hair is just straight and doesn't hold curl AT. ALL. I found this little Conair curling iron wand without a clamp and it has gotten wonderful reviews. So on a whim, I went to Target and bought it! It worked pretty well, the front stayed curly for a looonnnggg time and the back kept its shape for the most part, but did start falling out towards the end of the night. What do you think? Should I curl it more often?:

Let me just say that this thing comes with a glove so you don't burn yourself. Well, that didn't stop me :) Also, it took me AN HOUR to curl all of my hair. Yikes!

And lastly, because I love my two boys so much. Here is Marley Tucker sporting his soccer jersey in honor of his daddy!:

He is just the cutest little thing! He's currently laying at the back door whining to go out so I guess I should take him before he leaves me a nice little present to clean up! ;) Thanks everyone for being so patient with me over the last few weeks (and the next few to come!) But I do enjoy reading all your updates so thanks, they keep me sane!! Haha!

Happy weekend! :)

Closer

2011-04-04T18:15:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm getting closer to being finished (finally!) with school. I only have about a month and 2 papers left before finals. I'm so looking forward to that! So just a few quick updates for everyone:

I'm glad you all liked my Save the Dates! I loved them and can't help but look at my own every time I walk into the kitchen! :)
One of my childhood friends' grandfather passed away last week and his funeral was today...it would be great if you could keep them in your prayers! He was always so sweet to me when Ashley and I were younger.
Long story short: the hospitals in the area where I will be moving after graduation won't hire until you have your RN license...so I can't apply for any jobs until then. But, I got a call today from the ICU where I worked last summer and the nurse manager wants me to send him my resume! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this turns into something good for me:)
This past weekend, David and I went to his grandfather's wedding. It was short and sweet..and in the words of his grandfather, they had to get it done because they "don't have much time left!" Pop is so silly :)
I've gone off the deep end and have started to "calorie count." Started as in today. I really miss food, ha! I've been doing great with my exercising but seem to have plateaued and I still have a few pounds I'd like to get rid of. I'm hoping calorie counting will keep me honest and I'll get rid of that last little bit. Has anyone ever tried this? Or had any success with it? Ha! I can see this not lasting too long, but I'm going to try!

Anyway, no pictures today, but I hope Monday wasn't too bad for everyone:) It was beautiful here!

"Studying"

2011-03-29T19:04:00.009-04:00

I have my last med-surg exam this Thursday and instead of studying, I'm blogging :) What better way to procrastinate, right? I have a whole lot of random pictures and stuff to blog about so I figured now would be a great time! So, I'm going to start by taking you all the way back to spring break (almost 3 weeks ago now, ha!).

I thoroughly enjoyed my break and one thing I really enjoyed was having Jess and Jake over!

I'm really looking forward to moving down after graduation and getting to have couple friends over more! Jess and I both like to cook so that night, David grilled out BBQ chicken (he also made baked beans, yum!) and Jess and I cooked red potatoes and asparagus!

It was delicious and we had a great time laughing and catching up. We even decided to eat in the dining room! I love, love, love my dining room set and we never eat in there! I think I've all but decided we will be eating in there more once I move :)

The last weekend I was there, I decided to do a little "spring cleaning". I started with the windows and opened them once I was finished because it was beautiful, warm weather! Jovie found her new favorite spot:

The window sill. She sat there for hours! It was so cute :) The wind started blowing and wouldn't you know the first storm of the spring season showed up at our doorstep!

The thunder and lightening was beautiful...Marley didn't much care for it though and went to hide under the bed :) I kept cleaning and started hearing this loud thunking sound and had no idea what was going on and happened to look outside and it was hailing. I couldn't believe it, some of the hail was as big as quarters! So I grabbed my camera and my flip ;)

*Disclaimer: I am from the south, but in the video I say something about the pretty day turning in to hail...I'm saying "hail"...not a redneck version of "hell" :)

I guess my last update is wedding info! These pictures are old, but we have a system for our wedding addresses and here I was copying them on to our cards.

But, save-the-dates went out yesterday and they have started arriving today! Everyone really seems to like them, so here it is!

Isn't it so cute?! I love how it turned out! The scoreboard is on the soccer field at Clemson and they were kind enough to help us get our special message across to all of our family and friends! I blocked out our last names and our website, just for privacy reasons :)

I guess that's all for my updates, maybe I should get to studying now, ha! Tomorrow's humpday! Enjoy :)

Back to School

2011-03-24T11:51:00.003-04:00

I thought I would update more over break, but...I didn't. I thoroughly enjoyed waking up late, going to the gym, and reading my Nook. I have and update all ready about the last week, but the video and pictures aren't uploaded to my computer yet. So I guess that will come at some point this year :)

Now that I'm back to school, I've been bombarded with nursing work. I was making fun of myself last night because I have a Neuro test next week and I was procrastinating studying for it by working on other nursing work! How sad is that?! Ha!

Anyway, I got my Save the Dates in the mail yesterday! They are SO CUTE. I can't wait to show them to everyone!! We should be sending them out soon so as soon as they are out, I'll post it on here for all of the blog world to see! Tonight, mom and I went to my florists house to finalize some things. I am so excited about my bouquet. Because we are getting married in September, everything will be blooming then! So my bouquet is going to be extremely colorful!

As the day gets closer (6 months from TODAY, actually!), I find myself getting more and more excited. I can't believe this is happening and I'm trying to enjoy every moment of it. I know it will be over before I blink :)

This weekend, I am going with my grandmother to a place called Pewter Rose for brunch. We are thinking that this will be the place for my bridal luncheon, so we want to go taste the food. I'm all for that! And then...the most fun of all-- David and I are registering!! I'm a girl and I am definitely looking forward to that! (I think David is looking forward to it, but you know how guys are ;) )

Anyway, I have an exam next Thursday, but I'm hoping to update my blog more after that test is done. I won't have any more exams until finals roll around so hopefully I'll have more time to blog!

I hope everyone has a great weekend though!

Productive

2011-03-16T12:14:00.002-04:00

I was up at 5:45 am this morning. And it's spring break. Ughhh. For the life of me I could. not. sleep. So I ended up getting up and making a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast :) (And then I did go back to sleep, kind of).

Anyway, it is spring break and I'm enjoying my time with my future little family! Saturday we went to Nami and it was just as delicious as I always remember it being. And Sunday was just a very productive day. We majorly cleaned the downstairs of our house, took little Marley on a walk around the neighborhood (my little man loves walks!), went to the gym, and I made lasagna for dinner on Monday.

Unfortunately, David has to work this week so during the day I'm pretty much on my own. And even though it's spring BREAK...it's not really a break :) I still have a long list of nursing to-do's--but I get to do them on my time as opposed to the school's time, ha! Oh well, I'm enjoying my sleeping in and there is only about 6 weeks left! Praise the Lord for that! I think I'm about to go crazy--a really unfortunate side affect of nursing school :)

And aside from all of my nursing work, I'm playing with my new toy that my wonderful fiance got me for my birthday: A NOOK! I couldn't believe it! I think I may be marrying the best man in the entire world, y'all :) I've already finished one book and I'm about to download a few more!

But first, I have to run a few errands-- tonight's menu is Lemon-pepper crusted salmon on a bed of couscous and asparagus. Yummm! (And I may or may not stop by Target and walk around for an hour...probably my favorite store ever!)

Sorry things are so boring around here lately, but I hope everyone has a great day :)

Oh Hey....

2011-03-10T14:09:00.008-05:00

....It's my birthday!

So far it's been an interesting day. I woke up this morning for class and found out my mom is sick. Boo. Totally bummed that she won't be able to help me celebrate with my family tonight! Then I had my 3rd med-surg exam this morning. Mostly liver, pancreas and coagulation stuff. I don't know how I did, but I am sure glad it's over!! And, I just turned in a 14 page paper! Whew, I'm tired ;)

*Here we are touching Howard's Rock...Go Tigers!*

I have some of the best friends though! I had a purple and orange gift bag sitting on my desk when I walked in the classroom and was handed a multitude of birthday cards :) So far, I have some new pens, my favorite chocolate in the world (Ghiradelli dark chocolate with a caramel middle...yum!), a Target card, and a STARBUCKS card! My friends know the way to my heart--that's for sure :)

*Close-up of the rocks... ;) *

Tonight, my grandparents are having a birthday dinner for me with my special request: Mixed green salad with goat cheese and home made citrus dressing, steak, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Can. not. wait. It's going to be delicious! And to make it better, my cousin Amy is home on spring break and will get to help me celebrate! (And of course, Tyler will be there too!)

*You didn't think we would forget Marley in the engagement pictures, did you?! I'm thinking he's the only dog who ever got to touch the rock ;)*

I'm also really looking forward to this weekend :) One clinical day stands between me and spring break--I think that may just be the best birthday present ever haha! On Saturday, David is taking me out for a birthday dinner at Nami. If you've been reading long, you know this is my favorite restaurant in Anderson, SC! there is only one so if you're ever driving through, you definitely need to stop at and eat. We are going to be going with Jess and Jake :)

And then I'll just spend the rest of my spring break relaxing at David's, working on some papers, Kaplan questions for NCLEX, and visiting some hospitals for potential jobs.

Hopefully I'll be updating a little more over the next week or so :) But Happy Almost Weekend, everyone!

Wedding Wednesday!

2011-03-02T18:51:00.003-05:00

This morning I had to go to the dentist to get 2 cavities filled :( I take such good care of my teeth so when I have cavities, it really stinks! But the doctor was awesome! He numbed me up pretty good--so good in fact, that my left ear was numb! That has never happened to me before, ha! But now I'm feeling it. I have a headache and I think it's from the novacaine! Oh well, I just took some medicine and a lot of great stuff happened today that I can lay on the couch and think about, haha :)

Not too much to update on in the wedding world, but....

I got my wedding dress altered today!!!! It's my last time getting to play dress up until May, but I was so happy to get it put on and see how it's going to actually fit next time around!
I also picked out my veil today :) I think it is the perfect match for my dress. Just enough sparkle, just enough girlie-ness, and just enough length.
All of my bridesmaid's have officially bought their bridesmaid's dresses! Some of them have to be altered, but for the most part everyone loves them. I'm happy about that! Still looking for shoes though....
And probably the thing I'm most thrilled about right now is....I got my engagement pictures back today!!!! :) Here's a little sneak peak :

I don't want to show too many, because David hasn't even seen them yet (tomorrow!) but I'm too excited to not share any at all, ha!

Hope everyone had a great Wednesday! Now if we can just get through the rest of the week... :)

Weekend Recap

2011-02-28T19:04:00.003-05:00

This past weekend, I went down to Greenville to spend some quality time with David :) I got there Friday night and we could not find anything for dinner to save our life! We eventually went to Trader Joe's, got some wine, chips, salsa, hummus, and a frozen chicken meal. We turned on some Zac Brown pandora and hooked it up to the surround sound and had a fabulous time singing and fixing dinner together. It was the best night :)

Satuday, David and I went to the gym and I ran 3 miles without stopping!! (Proud of myself!) We also went to Lowe's and Target to start picking out stuff for our registry :) I always really enjoy getting to spend time with my boy and this weekend was no exception.

Saturday night, we went downtown with my MOH and her boyfriend. It was so nice to catch up with my bestest! We went to a place called Takosushi which was delicious! We caught up on a lot of what has been going on and reminisced about the past as well :)

We went to High Cotton for drinks but wanted to have a little more fun so we went to a club down the street and partied well into the morning. It was a much needed night out with great friends! I think I can get through the rest of the semester now, haha ;)

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Wedding Wednesday...Finally!

2011-02-23T20:55:00.002-05:00

Finally, an update! I'm so sorry I haven't been around lately. It seems like it's all I can do to just get through a week of nursing school these days! They seem to just keep piling on the work...there's a light at the end of the tunnel (May 7th to be exact...) but it's a very, very small light right now :) And my schedule is only going to get worse starting in March! Oh well, if I make it through this semester, I can make it through anything :)

First of all, Ashley's sweet baby is adorable. He may be the cutest baby on the planet right now. I can't wait to meet him:)

Second, there have been a few new things wedding-wise!

The bridesmaid's have ordered their dresses! We ended up going with the purple ones from Nordstrom's. I love them. And as far as I know (and have been told) the bridesmaid's love them too! I'm happy to hear that because I don't want them to be wearing something they don't like!
I'm still on the look out for some shoes for the bridesmaids. I'm still thinking cream but I just have not had time to look!
I found my shoes! They are satin white right now...but soon they'll be purple ;) And I'll show you a picture of them once they are complete!
I've met with a florist! I really liked her and she had some great ideas. Apparently everything is blooming in September and we are going to have some bright colors intertwined :) My grandmother and I are meeting with another florist on Friday just to compare, so hopefully we'll know what we're dealing with soon.
The most exciting thing that's happened recently is that David and I had our engagement pictures done on Sunday!! We had so. much. fun. We had them taken at Clemson. Some on the football field (for all of you Tigers out there, we got to touch the rock and run down the hill! It was pretty cool!), the soccer field (David's home turf), and in the botanical garden. The guys were hoping to to get them back to us within two weeks!! As soon as I get some pictures, I'll put some up.....I'm hoping they are good :)
Lastly...I'm on the schedule next Wednesday to get my dress altered! I already have my dress, I'm going to have a completely full schedule until the middle of May...so I wanted to go ahead and get on top of it. I have to admit, I'm enjoying the fact that I'm going to get to wear my dress again so soon ;)

PS- if any of you watch Glee...the Justin Bieber episode is cracking me up... (yeahhh....I'm a week behind on my shows...)...although I really liked watching Puck sing "Fat Bottom Girls" in whatever episode that was. He is just so cute!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! I'm heading to spend time with David on Friday, maybe I'll have something worthy of a blog post sooner than a month :)

Quickie!!

2011-02-22T20:50:00.003-05:00

Two quick things! And I promise I'm updating the wedding planning tomorrow :) Last week was crazzyyyy and I can't believe I survived it, ha!

1. I joined twitter! If you have twitter, please come follow me! I'd love to follow you, too! :)

@SoontobeMrsBell

2. One of my oldest friends, Ashley (we've known each other since we were 2!) had her sweet baby BOY tonight! Happy Birthday, little David! If you think about it, send up a prayer for them!

See you all tomorrow!

Wedding Wednesday

2011-02-09T20:51:00.002-05:00

I haven't forgotten about the wedding updates, but I'm so exhausted tonight that I'm going to have to update later. It will most likely be Friday before I get to it! I worked last night and I work again tomorrow night...after spending the whole day at class. So, I'm pretty busy and I'm headed to bed now. Hope you guys have an enjoyable rest of the week :)

Worst Blogger Award!

2011-02-08T13:20:00.004-05:00

I nominate myself for the worst blogger award! ;) I'ts so hard to find time to blog when I'm in nursing school. I feel so guilty when I take the time to do anything other than nursing related...isn't that so bad? But I'm doing my tutoring hours today (well, I did some and no one else is signed up after...yay!) so instead of doing work I thought I'd update :)

This weekend David came up! I haven't seen him in 3 weeks so it was nice to get to hang out. I had to work Friday night so David spend the evening with Marley and Macy. (I couldn't bear to think about Marley staying all by himself at night! My mom went out of town so if David hadn't come up, poor Marley would have been all alone!)

Saturday, David and I went to dinner with our friends Vannessa and Dave, and Leslie and Hugh. We went to Cantina Fifteen Eleven. It was a yummy mexican place and we enjoyed the food, but our waitress was terrible! Oh well--good food and good friends makes for a great night in my book!

Also, some of my blog readers were wondering what kind of dog Marley is! I always enjoy bragging about my sweet pup so now is the perfect opportunity! Marley is a yorkipoo. (I know y'all are smart but just in case, he's half yorkshire terrier, half miniature poodle!) He's obviously got more yorkie in him than poodle, but he's got enough poodle that he doesn't shed--awesome! He's so smart...and oh my gosh, such a cutie! He loves to cut his eyes at you when he's playing so he looks like he's mad but his little nub just wags and wags!

He also loves to cuddle. He sleeps under the covers and really likes his space, but some part of him always has to be touching me. If he can't feel me during the night, he stretches his little legs out to touch my leg just to make sure I'm still there-- 100% love :)

He also thinks he's a big dog. Macy (my mom's 80 lb. golden retriever) just cowers when Marley starts getting on to her about something :) It's pretty cute! And he loves to "protect" me from all the boogers that come in our yard! (aka the birds...and squirrels...)

And of course his trademark--> his ears! He looks like a gremlin! The cutest gremlin I've ever seen ;)

Anyway, I'm pretty lucky to have such a sweet little guy who is always so happy to see me. He's not human, but he's definitely my baby! :)

Wedding Wednesday

2011-02-02T21:53:00.003-05:00

Not as late as last week's post, but almost! I have been fairly busy all day. I babysit for a family with twin boys on Wednesdays and didn't get done until 3:30pm there. Then I had a doctor's appointment at 4pm and didn't leave there until 5...only then to head over to support my friend Leslie as the president of our nursing club at school! The club hosted a dinner so I went to hang out for a bit.

I got home, fully intent on updating and when the police came. They were packing our street. My sweet, elderly neighbor was missing. He went on a walk at 1pm and hadn't been heard from since. The fire department showed up, the helicopter was searching with it's headlight and police from 3 counties over were showing up to search. So, all of that trumped my Wedding Wednesday!

Praise the Lord, they did eventually find him walking towards home a few miles away :) I can rest easy tonight!

That being said, there really isn't that much to update on today!

Our engagement pictures are scheduled! Assuming the weather cooperates (please pray that it does!!), we will be taking those babies on February 20th! This is something I have really, really been looking forward to so I hope everything goes according to plan!
I'm so excited because our pictures will be taken at Clemson! That's where David and I met and I just think it's so fitting :)
Bridesmaid's should be ordering their dresses! I sent out the e-mail over the weekend so hopefully they are getting on top of that...
The search is still on for shoes. For me and the bridesmaids.
Oh! I've decided to try my hand at making my own garter--haha! I'll let you know how that turns out ;)

This is my final bridesmaid to introduce! I'm kind of sad I don't have anymore! Maybe I'll do David's groomsen next??

Meet Susan:

If you can't tell from the picture, Susan is David's sister--aka my soon to be sister-in-law!

She is such a sweet girl and very outgoing. She graduated from UGA and is finishing up her first year as a 3rd grade teacher! (And she is doing a fantastic job, I might add!) We don't see each other often, but when we do, we have a blast! So far, I think my favorite memory has been rooming together at the beach last summer!

We stayed up late into the night talking about everything and we got really close :) I feel very lucky to be getting such a great sister and friend. And I know she'll make a great aunt to my future kiddos! She already is to Marley and Jovie! I'm glad she'll be up there with me as I marry into her wonderful family!

Surprise!

2011-02-01T21:13:00.004-05:00

Surprise! A Tuesday post! My life seems so boring during nursing school and I just hate to update everyday "Today I went to school. Then I came home and read until it was time to go to bed." And literally that's what my life consists of these days :)

Unfortunately, my school has decided to make some changes this LAST semester and I'm in the middle of trying to get everything figured out! Needless to say, it's brought on a lot of anxiety and tears. Frustrating!

I have 95 days until graduation so I'm just holding on to the hope that I make it! This is a short post, but I'll leave you with some of the things that are keeping me sane right now ;)

A whole lot of this yummy stuff!

So ready for some of this warm weather...and beautiful color!

Still enjoying being engaged...I only get to be engaged for another 7 1/2 months! :)

Love, love, love spending time with this hot athlete!

And of course this sweet, sweet boy!

Enjoy your week!

Wedding...Thursday?

2011-01-27T18:07:00.004-05:00

I missed Wedding Wednesday. How come no one told me?! ;) Just kidding! I had my first med-surg 2 exam today and have been studying non-stop for it the last 3 days. I literally left my house yesterday morning at 7:00am and didn't return until 9:30pm--and then I studied until 11:00 pm. So really, I had no time to blog. Which is a complete bummer because I have some exciting updates!

First and foremost-- I found (and bought) my wedding dress!!!!! Well, actually my sweet grandmother bought it for me and it is the exact one I wanted. I saw a picture in a magazine back in November and have desperately wanted to try it on since then. Really, the dress was meant to be mine. The designer is only carried in 2 stores around here--one close to me, and the other about 30 minutes from where I live. My mom, grandmother, and I went shopping on Saturday to the store closest to us. Unfortunately they didn't have my dress, but I did spend some time trying on other dresses. (I felt like a princess, haha!) We liked quite a few, took pictures of some, and were about to leave when I decided I wanted to head out to the other store, just to see. We arrived at the second store with about an hour left before closing and had no idea you had to have an appointment to try on dresses. So I said, "I really just want to see if you carry the dress that I want. I can make an appointment and come back." As fate would have it though, one of the co-owners had just finished up an appointment, stated that yes in fact, the did have the dress I was looking for and she would help me try it on! I came out with that dress on and actually burst in to tears! (I never thought I'd be the girl who cried when she found her wedding dress...) It's a beautiful dress and I can't wait to show it to you all! But I can't right now in case a certain someone should decide to view my blog ;)
Now we are in the market for some shoes. I want them to be purple and have the little cupped back on them. But I would like them to be open-toed. Any suggestions?
Also, here is the dress I'm leaning towards for bridesmaids--what do you think?? (The purple one) It's from Nordstrom's so you can't go wrong there and I'm hoping it's something they would want to wear again. Would you wear it again??
We are in the process of finding a weekend to go to Clemson to get our engagement pictures taken! I'm very excited about these pictures :) And I think David is getting excited too. He had a really cute idea for Save the Dates on Riggs soccer field. He e-mailed the AD at Clemson and they e-mailed back saying they would love to support us any way they could-- I love my Clemson family!
We are also starting to plan our rehearsal dinner. We want to do dinner with our bridal party. David has a big family and not all of them are in our party so he's thinking about doing something after with everyone and I like that idea! I like the formality of the rehearsal dinner with the bridal party and then some "party fun" afterwords :)
Lastly, David and I will be meeting with the woman who (hopefully) is going to be marrying us on February 6th! I've met her before, as she is one of my grandmother's friends, but David hasn't and I think she wants to get a feel for us as a couple. I think she'll decide from this meeting if she will do our ceremony...I'm not worried :)

Now for the bridesmaid! Meet my sweet friend Vanessa:

Vanessa and I met in nursing school, just like Leslie! In fact, all three of us are good friends :) Vanessa is getting married just two weeks before me! She got engaged to her fiance,

named David too, last April. They set their wedding date for 9-10-11, how cute is that!

The day V got engaged :) So excited for her!

She has been so kind and sweet to let me and David share September with her and even more amazing to share it with me! She is so awesome with her running! She has run two half marathons and has motivated me to start running, too!

V, Les, and me on race day!

But she is just awesome to watch! Van is one of the most honest people I know. She is the true meaning of "friendship" in that she wants the absolute best for her friends, and will make sure you are happy, even if that includes having the hard talks. She's had many of these talks with me because I'm so stubborn and helps me see other views on things and I love her all the more for it! I'm so, so glad she agreed to be in my wedding and I can't wait to help celebrate hers! :)

Inspiration Monday

2011-01-24T10:15:00.002-05:00

"Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue. Every natural action is graceful; every heroic act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Can anyone sense a pattern here?? It seems that my blogs mostly consist of Inspiration Monday's and Wedding Wednesday's now! I guess we all know school is back in session :) Monday's are my day off to play catch up with all of my school work and anything else that needs to get done. Tuesday I have class and tutoring, Wednesday I babysit from 9-3:30pm and then there are Thursdays....

From now until all of my hours (120 to be exact) are completed, I will be going to class from 8-3:30pm on Thursdays, coming home for a quick 1 hour nap, and then heading to the hospital for my preceptorship! I work Thursday nights 7p-7a, come home and sleep most of the day Friday and get up and do it all again Friday night.

Needless to say, I get pretty exhausted over the weekend and spend most of that time catching up on my rest! When do I have time to do anything else??? Ha! But so far my preceptorship has been good. It's a med-surg floor and really there is nothing interesting that goes on. Most of the women on my floor has sometime of cancer (ovarian, uterine...etc.) and sleep through the night. So mainly I pass meds, help people to the bathroom, and chart. I think I like a little bit more of an exciting atmosphere, but during the slow parts of the night I'm going to start taking my school books to get some reading out of the way. The girls that I work with are all really nice and encouraging and my preceptor has been nursing for 22 years! I'm definitely ready to graduate, but I'm also really nervous about being "out on my own." It's just kind of scary knowing someone's life is in your hands.... haha!

Anyway, I am headed up to school today to talk to the new nursing students about how I have been a successful nursing student--hahaha ;) That should be interesting! Happy Monday everyone!

Wedding Wednesday

2011-01-19T13:31:00.005-05:00

Today, I am being a little foolish, a little stupid, and a little upset. I know I'm being selfish, but I can't help it. Believe me, I'm trying not to feel this way, but it's just not fair.

Let me give you a little background information-- David's cousin Russell got engaged a year ago in December. He was married this past October. Everyone was so excited for them, and they should be. It was their time to shine. They were in love and planning their wedding (which was beautiful, by the way) and no one interfered with that. That's how I think it should be. David knew it was their time too, he didn't ask me to marry him until they had been married for almost a month. He didn't want anything taking away from their new beginning and wanted to make sure they had enough time to feel special and really enjoy being newlyweds.

David's other cousin, Van, just got engaged a few weeks ago. Van informed David last night that he and Brittany (his fiancee) were thinking of a few dates but had narrowed it down to labor day weekend or October 8th. (Remember, David and I are getting married on Sept. 24th!) They decided to go with October 8th so they wouldn't be getting married before we did. How thoughtful of you.

I know I should be happy for them. I know I should be grateful they decided to go with Oct. 8th instead of 2 weeks before my wedding. But instead, I'm angry. I'm hurt. And I feel a little disrespected. Instead of 2 weeks before, they are doing 2 weeks after. Like I said, it's selfish and I realize that. But I want that special time to transition into being married. I want to enjoy it, relish it, and grow into this new role in life. I really don't think that's going to happen in 2 weeks. It's almost like this new union will be overshadowed. David was so polite in waiting a while to do anything and that's why I love him so much. He always thinks of others. But I want that same respect and I don't feel like I'm getting it at all. Of all the Saturdays after September 24th, there wasn't one a little farther out to choose? I know I'm being selfish, but I think they are being selfish too. No one is getting married 2 weeks after them so they don't have to worry about their special time being cut short. It's just really hurt my feelings.

With all that being said, I'm still excited about my wedding and my marriage, but today I'm just not feeling it. But luckily there are only a few updates:

The biggest update I kind of mentioned in last Wednesday's blog. We decided to change photographers! At the beginning, I was the only one who met with OTL (since David and I are apart). We both met with Piper Warlock and since we both met with her in person , I was happier with using her because of that very reason. As luck would have it though, David was here this past weekend and we e-mailed OTL last minute asking if they could meet with us since he was in town. We met for lunch on Monday and before we even sat down to eat David whispered to me, "I'm sold." He really, really liked them :) We talked about it when we got home and just decided OTL was who we were supposed to go with. I'm glad we ended up both getting to meet all parties involved because it made the decision a lot easier to make when he and I could compare together. Lesson #1 learned for the future marriage: make decisions together. Whew! 1 down, a billion more to go ;)
And the only other update I have is that I think I'm going wedding dress shopping this weekend! If not this weekend, then definitely next weekend. I'm ready to start finding my dress!

This next part makes me feel so much better because I love my bridesmaids! Meet Leslie:

Leslie and I have only known each other for about 2 years, but I've known her dad for a while ;) He was my eye doctor!

We both ended up in the nursing school together and have become really good friends through this process! Leslie graduated from UGA with a degree in Psychology and absolutely loved her time there! So much so, that she goes back to visit with her friends a lot! Her boyfriend Hugh works in Atlanta so they split their time here or there. They are such a cute couple!

After graduation, she hopes to be working here or--surprise! In Atlanta! She really has a heart for pediatrics and NICU so she's hoping to get a job in that area!

And she's going to be an awesome nurse! I can't wait to see what the future holds for her in nursing! I'm also so happy that she's agreed to stand beside me at my wedding. I've really grown to cherish her friendship and wouldn't want it any other way!

Inspiration Monday

2011-01-17T21:44:00.004-05:00

Well I'm almost 2 hours late with this post, but better late than never right? Not only is this today's quote, but it's also this semester's power verse (I've picked out a verse every semester to focus on and help me through!) :

"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20-21

Oh how comforting those words are to me, in life, but especially in my last semester of nursing school...with a lot of change coming! There is a light at the end of the tunnel (but it's very very tiny!!)

This weekend has been just wonderful. David came up Friday evening and had MLK day off so we had an extra day to hang. We did a bunch of fun wedding stuff this weekend and made a major change in what I posted on Wedding Wednesday of last week.

Just a little background, but in your last semester of nursing school, you do a preceptorship--which is the same thing as an internship--they just have to use a scary term. Most nursing schools allow students to choose a few areas they would like to be in and try to place them there. I think that is a wonderful idea because considering how hard it is to get a job as a nurse right now, if you want to get a job in an area of interest, you have to have some experience there. Unfortunately, our nursing school made the decision to get rid of having a choice. I'm bummed about that because I feel like it's taking away my option of finding a job I will love once I graduate. I know it's not the end all, be all, but it's still frustrating after all of the hard work I've put in. Butttt, I got my preceptorship information last week. For the next 5 or 6 weeks, I will be working on the women's health oncology floor 7p-7a, Thurs, Fri, and Sat.

I have never been interested in taking care of cancer patients. I don't mean that in a mean way, but it's just not my passion. But I'm looking on the bright side, maybe I'll find out that I actually enjoy it? And I'm actually okay with the hours and I've spoken to my preceptor (nurse who I will be working with) over e-mail a few times and she sounds really nice. Whether I love it or hate it, it will only be for 120 hours, or 5 weeks, or 10 days :) ....yep, 10 days sounds the best! And even if I do end up hating it, I have my wedding planning to look forward to ;)

Happy almost Tuesday everyone!

Wedding Wednesday!

2011-01-12T12:15:00.004-05:00

This has been a week for the books! I was supposed to go back to school Monday for my last semester of nursing school, but it's day 3 and we still haven't gone! And I am totally fine with that! I'm going to enjoy my last chance at snow day cancellations while I still can. :) I'm still recovering from my crazy illness, but feeling much better now! So much better in fact, that there has been a lot of wedding planning going on around here these last 3 days! So, here is the rundown for the last week:

The wedding diet/exercise plan has been put on hold until I'm feeling better. I'm still eating apples and bananas ;) but the running and weights has to wait until I can shower without getting tired haha! Hopefully I'll be 100% by next week and start full force again.
Last Wednesday, we met with our first group of photographers, OTL. (I'm not sure if I posted about this last Wednesday or not, so I'm putting it here just for good measure...) David wasn't here since it was the middle of the week, so mom went with me. We really liked them and they were very genuine and nice!
Saturday morning I had a meeting with a dj--I was so sick though! The poor guy probably didn't even want to shake my hand, ha! (No worries...I carry around large bottles of hand sanitizer everywhere I go...) And this time, David was here! I love the weekends because I feel like David actually gets to be a part of the planning process :) We really, really liked Joe. He works for Diamond DJ's and has for a while now, but worked in the radio business before, so we know he's good! Diamond DJ's came highly recommended from friends so we felt confident they would do a great job for us. We mainly met to make sure we liked him, felt comfortable with him, and that he would listen to what we wanted. He met all 3 criteria so we went ahead and signed a contract with him!
I was also supposed to ask my special people if they would be in my wedding on Saturday, but I was feeling so crummy I went to the doctor instead and changed up the date on them. It worked out well though, because they ended up having something else to do that day :) Hopefully that will be coming soon, though!
Sunday evening, we met with another photographer, Piper Warlick. Again, because David was here, he was able to meet with her! We thoroughly enjoyed meeting her, and I love her creativity and artistic pictures.
Now, this is the most fun part of the post for me because-- David and I settled on a photographer!! It was such a tough decision because both photographers we met with were amazing. We made a pros/cons list and that helped us not. at. all. ha! But we decided to go with Piper because her style was more of what we wanted. I'm so glad to have that decision made because now we can get on to the fun stuff! :)
The snow crept in so over the last 3 days, I've been updating my wedding binder. I've got magazine clippings with dresses I like and decorations I love.
Oh! Also, David and I will officially be married on September 24, 2011 at 6:00 pm!!! We had to set a time for the string quartet and that's the time we settled on...I can't believe it's only 254 days away!

Now, meet this beautiful bridesmaid:

This is my sweet, sweet cousin Amy. She is more along the lines of a sister to me than a cousin, though. We live in the same neighborhood and have our whole lives and when I was little, I would come home from school and stay at their house until my mom picked me up! Amy is a sophomore at UNC and has done so well there!

*Taken from Facebook-Uhlee Oh*

She volunteers at the hospital and is involved in a lot of activities at the school! She goes on mission trips every year and really has a heart of gold.

*Taken from Facebook-Brooklyn Stephens*

She is so kind to everyone and is so compassionate--honestly she makes me want to be a better person and the way she conducts herself is really an example to everyone she knows.

I'm so blessed to be able to call her family (and I'm not sharing!! ;) ) and I'm even more blessed that she has agreed to stand beside me and support me when I marry my best friend. I love you, Amy!

*I know this has nothing to do with my wedding, but I just wanted to say hello to my newest blog follower! Hi Jenna! :) I've been stalking her blog and she is so cute! You should stop by and leave a comment for her!

Inspiration Monday

2011-01-10T14:03:00.002-05:00

" Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays."--- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well I think that quote is perfect today :) Tomorrow should be my first day of my last semester of nursing school, but I'm thinking it will be canceled. The blizzard of 2011 is in full force here and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I haven't blogged in a few days because I have been sick. David was sick over break with some kind of cold virus and I thought I'd get away with it, but it turns out that I didn't. I did the Hurst Review (nursing girls, have you ever taken that?? It was great!) and on Tuesday I started not feeling very good and by Friday I could barely function, haha! Saturday I went to urgent care to find out that a) my nasal passages were so swollen that is was "nasty looking" according to the NP and b) that I had a pretty nasty sinus infection. I basically spent the weekend laying on the couch, in as dark a place as possible listening to movies and spending time with David. I'm sure he enjoyed it, haha ;) At least I know he will take good care of me when I'm sick and we're married!

I'm on day 3 of antibiotics and I'm just now starting to feel a little better. So this snow storm couldn't have come at a better time :) I have a little more time to relax, rest, and gear up for a healthy last semester! The snow is just beautiful and Marley is having a ball playing in it! Unfortunately, I left my camera charger at David's so I can't use my camera! But I did take a video with my flip so hopefully I'll upload that later.

Right now, I'm going to lay back down on the couch and watch a movie :) I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday, and if you are dealing with the blizzard (like the whole SE...and I think the NE is about to get pounded too!!) then stay warm!

PS- I've got some exciting news for Wedding Wednesday!

Christmas with my Fiance!

2011-01-05T18:42:00.004-05:00

And....here are the pictures of Christmas with my boy! Gahh, I love him :)

Our tree!! :) Poor Santa...

Opening our stockings!

Oh, he knows the way to my heart :)

My new, favorite cd at the moment!

David and his big-boy briefcase :)

Obviously, loving this next gift!

My new UGG boots!!

Opening his new tool box, full of tools!

I think he likes it!

Opening a gift from mom....

A Clemson glass pendant to hang in our house!

One of my favorite gifts--a canvas of Marley (although it's not really Marley, just a picture he found that looks just like him!)

Our stash! :)

Christmas...In Pictures!

2011-01-05T17:54:00.008-05:00

It's kind of late to be doing my christmas post but here I am, haha! But I'm not going to put long paragraphs, I'll let the photos do the talking for me--with some captions of course--y'all know I can't keep my mouth shut ;)

The grandparents and their grandchildren :)

Aren't they just the sweetest couple?

The whole family on Christmas Eve :)

Marley found his stocking and couldn't wait until morning...

Pulling all of his new toys out of his stocking!

Marley posing with his Christmas stash :)

In his Christmas jammies!

Ready for bed...

Mom and her new camera!

Amy and the hat I made her!

Amy had a special visitor on Christmas day! We all love Tyler :)

Scott's Christmas present to granddad--now he has a shirt for all the universities his grandchildren have attended!

The aftermath!

My beautiful cousin :)

Me and my granddaddy on Christmas morning!

My stash!

Our Christmas snow!

Pretty, pretty :) And still falling!

4 inches...very unusual around these parts at this time of year :)

Melting Marley's snowballs off after he played in the snow ;)

Wedding Wednesday!

2011-01-05T17:11:00.003-05:00

No, I have not fallen off the face of the planet :) Unfortunately (or fortunately?) my last semester of nursing school is beginning and we all know how much time that takes away from blogging for me. This week I've been attending a Hurst NCLEX review session and that will go through Friday. (I'll also do the same review right at the end of my semester in hopes that a double take will help it stick more..!) But the class is from 8am-4pm so nothing excited has been going on. Except my wedding diet/exercise plan :)

Which brings me to Wedding Wednesday! The diet is going okay. (And just for the record, I'm not "dieting"--I'm not excluding anything from my diet that I already eat but I AM incorporating healthier things, watching my portions, and minimizing some of the unhealthier things. I can't live without chocolate! But I do feel like I would be happier if I took better care of myself--and if I lose a few pounds in the process then great!) It's actually going more on the good side of okay, ha! I've had to eat cream of wheat for breakfast and that just did not go over well with me so I'm back to oatmeal for right now :) But lunch and dinner has been pretty good! Dinner last night was lemon crusted salmon over a bed of couscous and asparagus--it was de-licious! And the leftover salmon was also really good on my salad at lunch today! Exercising has been going good as well, although we'll see how long all of this lasts once I get into the middle of this stressful semester, ha! :)

But in other wedding news, we have a meeting with a photographer tomorrow!! I've e-mailed a couple, some of them can't do it and I've only heard back from this one who can. I'm hoping to hear back from a few others before I make my decision but I'm glad to know someone has my date available! We also have a meeting set up on Saturday with a dj! I don't know much about dj's so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we like the guy and can go ahead and get that out of the way.

Also on Saturday, I will be asking some very important people to be a part of our wedding! I think I may have told you about these people before, but until I ask them, I'm going to keep that a surprise! :)

But for now, meet Jess:

This beautiful girl is one of my best friends! We are so alike that it's scary--especially for our guys when we all get together ;) We met at Clemson and were roommates until I graduated.

Jess just graduated this past December (yay!!) and just started a new job this week! I'm so excited for her! She really, really loves nutrition and her new job is going to let her work with what she loves. I'm very excited to say that her job is in Greenville which means when I move down in the summer for good--my bestie will be there too!!! Poor David and Jake, I'm not sure they will know what's hit them!

I'm excited for us to be together again and I know she is going to be the best maid of honor!

Inspiration Monday

2011-01-03T12:38:00.002-05:00

So, in sticking to my New Year's resolution about learning to relax I have decided to make at least one post on Monday's "Inspiration Monday". I received a book of quotes for women last year for my birthday and have never read it and think maybe I should (especially with everything hanging over my head now: planning a wedding, last semester of nursing school, actually getting through nursing school, finding a job, an upcoming move to a different place after graduation, etc. etc.--the list goes on and on) and the encouragement will probably be good for me, ha!

And since my history has shown I need motivation to get something done, I'm thinking having a day set to post the encouragement will keep me honest :) If you don't want to read it, I'm fine with that, but I've got to do what's going to be good for me and what's going to keep me going! Hopefully though, you'll read something one day that will encourage you as well :)

So here is today's quote: "Embrace the wonder and excitement each day brings. For tomorrow affords us new opportunities...time to experience...time to create...time to reflect...time to dream." --Unknown

On that note, I'm going to embrace today by having Starbucks with my granddaddy (haven't had a date with him in a while!!) and head to the grocery store to pick up some healthy foods for my other new year's resolution ;) Happy Monday, y'all!!

Home

2011-01-02T20:26:00.006-05:00

Well, I'm home again. David drove me half way to meet my mom who drove me the rest of the way home. (I rode down with my cousin Scott the day after Christmas since it snowed so much!....I was scared to drive, haha!) We had lunch at Cracker Barrel, switched my stuff from David's car to mom's car and we were on our way. I can't believe how fast this break has gone and I've spent the rest of my day pouting, unpacking, and making myself feel better with some movies.

I just hate leaving my fiance.

On another note, we rang in the new year with my cousin Scott and his girlfriend Kylie. Unfortunately, I was a terrible photographer and took no pictures at all! I'm totally okay with it thought because we had such a good time! Kylie also introduced me to the nook-color. Hello new find! I can't wait to get my hands on one of those things, probably will be on my list for Christmas next year ;) She was showing me all the cool things you can do with it and says she's already read about 8 or so books on it! The thing is fantastic!

I still have to do my Christmas update and hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow! I have to get the camera card from my grandma and put the pictures on my computer and I haven't been home to do so! It'll be late, but it will be fun to remember how awesome this christmas season was!

As for new years resolutions, I've never been very good at them. But I have a very good reason to keep one of my resolutions this year--my wedding! So that being said, maybe if I display my resolutions for the blog world to see, I might actually keep them better this year! :)

1. I want to lose 10 lbs. and tone up for my wedding. I realize I'm already a good size for my body, but really this goal is more about getting into an exercise and healthy eating routine. And what a better way to motivate myself than for my wedding! Any health/exercise tips from the blog world??

2. I want to read my bible more. I desperately need to work on my relationship with Christ and for some reason that always seems to be put on the back burner for me. I find that I need direction though when I do read, so does anyone have any good devotional books they've used and would recommend?

3. I need to graduate and find a job! I will graduate so I'm not as concerned with that (although, actually getting to graduation may prove a feat in itself! I'm already stressed and the semester hasn't even begun!) But I would really like to find a job--preferably one that I will enjoy. I'd really like the NIC-U, and while I've been in the NIC-U before, I haven't had any formal training so I doubt that will come to fruition, but I'd also like mom/baby and I could do ICU as well :) I just need it to happen!

4. I want to read more! I have a very hard time reading anything but nursing books during school, so this goal will have to be met after I graduate. I love to read and will be looking for some good books--sooo, blog world, give me a list of some good books you've read! :)

5. I need to learn to relax. Over the last few years I've developed quite a case of anxiety. It gets worse, gets better, but when it's bad--it's bad. I would really like to learn to relax and live more in the moment instead of worrying about everything that I can't control.

6. Lastly, but certainly not least, I want to learn how to be a good wife and partner to David. This is a role I've never been in before and while I've had some good examples set before me, it's quite different being in this role! :) I'm not quite sure how to go about this so again, any tips? :)

I hope everyone had a great New Year's! I really enjoyed reading about all of them as well as looking at all the holiday pictures! I hope 2011 brings happiness and peace to all of you :)

Wedding Wednesday!

2010-12-29T19:48:00.005-05:00

I'm happy to announce that all bridesmaids have accepted and are accounted for! :) And really, that is the only update I have for this week! I've been spending a lot of time with my family and my future-family so no planning has really gone on. But I'm excited to share how I asked my bridesmaids!

David is really handy with tools and I had him help me create puzzles as the invitation. I started off with this saying:

And attached it to these cute circular boxes with a purple ribbon--one of my wedding colors :)

I wrote each girl a special note about how much they meant to me and how I would be honored if they would stand beside me on my wedding day and put it at the bottom of the box and put the puzzle pieces on top! Each puzzle had a picture of us on it and the question "Will you be my bridesmaid?" After they put the puzzle together, they could read the note! I think everyone really liked the puzzles and I was thrilled with how they turned out :)

Now, meet the bridesmaids!

Jess....

Amy (my cousin)...

Leslie...

Vanessa...

Susan (future SIL)...

I'm thinking each week, I'll tell a little about each girl (assuming it's okay with them) so you all can get to know some of my favorite people :)

Post Christmas...Post

2010-12-28T23:58:00.002-05:00

Hi all!

Just letting you know I'm still here :) We ended up having a "white christmas" after all--it was absolutely beautiful!

David and I headed to his parents for a few days and that's where I am now. I fully intend on doing a christmas post (and a video...or five--aren't y'all lucky!) but I don't have all the pictures yet and I'm waiting on the good ones ;) Until then, I'm really enjoying reading about all of your wonderful holidays! It looks like we have all been very blessed this season.

On Christmas Eve, they sang a song and I just fell in love with it. It was a song about Mary singing to her baby boy who had come to save us. I thought it was so beautiful and was so enthralled in the moment of song that I completely forgot the name of it and most of the lyrics after we left! I have been wracking my brain over the last few days trying to figure out what song it was and I'm happy to say that I just found it about 10 minutes ago and wanted to share it with all of you :) I hope it speaks to you like it did to me!

Christmas Eve!

2010-12-24T10:57:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! And because I probably won't be posting tomorrow, Merry Christmas!

I was up until 1:00 am baking sugar cookies and cinnamon rolls! By the time I was done, I was exhausted, ha! I think the cinnamon rolls turned out good (we'll know tomorrow morning!) and and I know for a fact that the cookies were good! I might know that a little too well in fact. I'm officially on sugar overload!

* Here's our annual picture from last year...notice Marley sneaking into the picture in his Santa suit.... :)

Today I'll be packing my bag (and Marley's!) and heading to my grandparents house. We'll take the annual christmas picture and then head to the Christmas Eve church service. Then it's dinner and game time...and finally time for bed so Santa can come ;) Word on the street is that it is supposed to snow on Christmas day! It hasn't snowed here on Christmas day in 40 years--I would love a white christmas so I'm keeping my fingers crossed :) I'm sorry this post has been all over the place, I'm kind of in a rush to get everything together! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year! Can't wait to hear all about yours!

Wedding Wednesday!

2010-12-22T20:56:00.002-05:00

A little late, but what can I say? It's only 2 days until Christmas so I've got quite a lot going on! :)

But, here is the update on the Roberts-Bell wedding (I get so giddy when I see "Roberts-Bell wedding!! Ahhh!):

The contract has officially been turned in to the Ballantyne Resort and we were given an upgraded suite for our first official night as Mr. and Mrs. Bell! (Okay, I get pretty giddy about that, too!)
We have narrowed down who we want to officiate at our wedding. We still have to go through the "interview" process, but I'm thinking positively and that it will work out :)
We didn't hire a wedding coordinator, but my grandparents have a friend, Judy, who is absolutely wonderful at organization and more importantly, getting people to do what they need to do! We have enlisted her help in the wedding day festivities and I know she will keep everyone on track! I'm so excited and honored that she agreed to help us!
We've also decided to save money with flowers. We will get a florist to do the bouquets and lapels but another family friend is going to help us do the floral arrangements for the reception tables and probably the ceremony as well. I'm really excited about it because I will be more relaxed knowing people in charge of flowers will actually listen to what I want!
We are still looking for a photographer. I've looked at a few and really liked their styles, but most of them have been pretty expensive. I'm not sure what I'm going to do but hopefully we will find someone soon--I'm ready to get on those engagement photos!! :)
I'm not sure if I mentioned this in last week's post or not, but David has started looking at wedding rings!! (Might be a little frightening for him, actually, haha!! I kid...) I'm excited to see what styles he likes.
One more bridesmaid to add to the list and she'll get her gift right after Christmas! Hopefully Wedding Wednesday will start introducing the bridesmaids. (But I said that last week too, and here we are...)

That's all for now! I'm so glad I can blog about this so I will have this to look back on in the future:) (AKA, when I'm not so stressed, haha!)

A Look Back: 2010

2010-12-20T15:26:00.013-05:00

I saw this on another blog (which blog?? It escapes me now, I'm so so sorry!) but I really loved the idea so I'm doing it for myself! Here is a look back at my 2010 year :)

January

David and I rang in the New Year with our good friends Jake and Jess and my cousin Scott and his girlfriend Kylie!

February

February brought our first snow in our first house :) It was beautiful...

and Marley really enjoyed it ;)

March

David and I went with his family to see Brad Paisley--we were so close to him!

And I celebrated my 23rd birthday with clothes

and a trip to the beach...

...with some good friends

April

The nursing girls celebrated Vanessa's birthday on the first warm day of spring!

We also all walked in the March of Dimes walk and made our own t-shirts! It was so much fun and such a great cause.

I was also inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau international nursing honor society which was a great honor. I've definitely worked hard for my nursing degree!

May

What a fun month! We celebrated Scott's graduation from Georgia Tech! I'm so proud of my cousin.

*I also started my nursing internship in the MS-ICU and ER...but I never took any pictures of my uniform :)

June

In June, we found our sweet Jovie girl on the side of the road! It's turned out that she's got quite an attitude!

And we also went to a Brave's game to celebrate Poppa's (David's grandfather) birthday!

The most fun was David's family's beach trip. It's turned in to an annual thing and I really look forward to it each year. I hope I get to go next year :)

July

Over the 4th weekend, we headed to the Bell's lakehouse and I learned how to water ski! I've done it now, so I don't have to do it ever again ;)

August

"You know I like my chicken fried..."

David, his sister Susan, her boyfriend Chase, and I all went to the ZBB concert and it was awesome! So much fun and he's such a good musician!

September

Start of football season! We ventured to Clemson many times this football season, but the best part was getting to catch up with my old roomies :)

October

Has turned in to such a loving month! First, David's cousin Russell got married to Jamie. It was such a nice wedding and the reception was amazing! Here is the Bell family...little did I know that I was going to be a part of that family so soon!

Probably the most exciting event of the year for me was getting engaged!! I can't believe I get to marry the love of my life next year and it was such a wonderful, thought-out surprise!

November

David and I ran in our first 5k! I am very proud of myself and can't wait to run in some more races!

I was also asked to be in my friend Vanessa's wedding as a bridesmaid! What an honor, and I can't wait to stand next to her and support her in her wedding!

And of course, we can't forget the trip to get the christmas tree :)

December

David and I celebrated 4 years together--I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

I touched my very first zebra, haha :)

And tried my hand at home-made cinnamon rolls--which turned out quite delicious if I do say so myself!

What a wonderful look back :) A lot of wonderful, wonderful things have happened to me this year and I can't help but feel so blessed and grateful! I hope yours was just as great!

Busy Bee!

2010-12-18T21:27:00.004-05:00

I have been a busy bee the last few days! I've had a bunch of crafty things to do since David was at work and let me tell you, I've been rocking it out! I made 2 pillow cases on Wednesday. I won't bore you with pictures of those, you've seen enough of my pillow cases to know what they look like :)

Then I got to work on a project I was really excited about. This will be Jovie's first christmas and she doesn't have a stocking. It would have been very easy to just go out and buy one, but I thought I'd try my hand at sewing one! I think I did pretty good on it. I ran out of batting on Thursday and had to get out in the nasty weather to go get extra. Then, I proceeded to break two needles...and was so frustrated I just had to quit. I finally got up the nerve to finish today ;) And here is the final product! What do you think?

I think it's pretty girly! I love it!

David and I went shopping today for my christmas present. I have been wanting a pair of skinny jeans so that's what we did! I ended up getting three pairs of BKE's from Buckle--one of which is a pair of skinnies :) When we got home, these babies were finally waiting on me!

David and I celebrated 4 years of being together on Thursday and he ordered me flowers which never came. But they were here today and he was so excited because they are called "candy cane lilies"--love it!

And finally, for the last few hours, I've been working on the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls! At christmas time, my family usually has bacon and cinnamon rolls so this year I decided we were going to have homemade cinnamon rolls :) Tonight was just a run through but I think they turned out pretty good! David enjoyed them! Here they are before we cooked some of them:

Here is one batch just out of the oven!

And the delicious topping :)

I made mine with cream cheese frosting instead of her maple frosting, but I'm sure that's just as delicious! Tomorrow I am tackling some sugar cookies--David's request :) But I think I'm done for the night, haha! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Charlie Brown

2010-12-16T20:06:00.004-05:00

Ugh. I have been in a mood most of the day and I have no idea why. There is no reason for me to be in a mood but I am. Jovie has just been such an evil girl today and Marley has been extremely whiny and doesn't want to leave my lap. (I'm not sure, but does that sound like parenthood to anyone??) It has been pouring rain, cold, and icy all day here so I'm sure that has something to do with it. Not to mention I have been working religiously on a little christmas present for Jovie (yes, I am one of those pet people...) and I ran out of material so I had to get out in the nasty weather....and then proceeded to break 2 needles while I was sewing! I only had 2 needles, therefore I am out until I find a Bernina store around here that sells needles. Bah humbug.

David came home early today (a good thing, yay!) and got really mad because apparently he had ordered flowers for me today. It's our 4 year anniversary today (I sure do love him!) and his flowers never arrived so then he was in a mood too, haha! So I gave up on my project for the night and we made chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for dinner. And a glass (or 2...) of wine! Now Marley has made his way on to my lap and David and I are watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and life seems a whole lot better :)

Tomorrow I'm venturing out to find the Bernina store for some needles--hopefully some that will stand up to my project-- and David and I are heading to a Christmas Zoo thing that his cousin and girlfriend know about. I'm excited because I think we get to pet a zebra! Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and a great start to the week before Christmas! I can't believe it's almost here!

Wedding Wednesday

2010-12-15T10:41:00.003-05:00

Normally, I participate in Wordless Wednesday, but since something pretty exciting is happening next September, I've decided that for my own sake I'm going to make Wednesday, "Wedding Wendesday" for me for a while! That way I can look back and remember all the planning I put in to our big day! So hopefully every Wednesday will be an update on what's going on wedding-wise.

So far:

I have narrowed down and found the place I'm going to get married! My ceremony and reception will be at the same place :) It will be held at the Ballantyne Resort and is such a beautiful place!
We have decided on a date: September 24, 2011! I can't wait :) It sounds like a pretty day to have an anniversary, doesn't it?
I have decided on my maid of honor and bridesmaids! As well as a very cute way to ask them! I haven't officially asked all of them yet, so I can't post my idea or pictures yet, but as soon as everyone knows and accepts I'm going to let you guys know! David has also narrowed down his best man and groomsmen, but hasn't asked them yet. He said, "I'll probably ask them in like January or something..." --what a guy haha!
We are now in the throes of finding someone to do our ceremony for us ( I think we know who, we just still need to ask!), a photographer, and a dj. In case you didn't know--these are all expensive. Which stresses me out.
We are also deciding on a live string quartet for our ceremony. What do you think about that? Any pros and cons from the blog world?
I have decided on my colors! They will be purple and cream. I think it's going to be so, so pretty!

That's about it for now. Maybe by next Wednesday all the bridesmaids will be accounted for and I can start introducing them to you! :) Happy Wednesday!

Breast Cancer Awareness

2010-12-14T21:29:00.002-05:00

Hi all! I haven't updated in a while because, really, there is nothing to update on. I have really enjoyed the beginning of my break and doing absolutely nothing during the day! :) I am starting to work on some crafty things though so hopefully I'll have something to update you with soon! Oh, I am visiting with my fiance for a week! He's got a couple food things he wants while I'm here so maybe I'll liven up my blog a bit with some pictures of it haha!

Anyway, I saw this video and it really touched my heart. Maybe because I'm a woman, maybe because I'm in the caring field of nursing, I don't know, but I do know that I started crying when the survivors take their place in the video:) It's an awesome video and I just wanted to share it with all of you! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-12-08T09:04:00.004-05:00

Y'all know my Wordless Wednesday posts are never wordless! The family down the street from me are orthodox jews. (Very nice family, I might add!) They are orthodox to the point that they wear yarmulkes, wear tallits (shawls) which hold the tzitzit (fringes), and...during hanukkah...they drive their cars with this on top:

That's right, folks. Some of us who celebrate Christmas like to drive around with antlers and a red nose on our car. My jewish neighbors down the road, sport their "happy chanukah" menorah! And yes, the candles do light up! :)

Happy Chanukah!

The Tale of the Tutor

2010-12-07T17:37:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure if I told you guys way back when (that would be in August in case you were wondering) that I was approached by the Center for Academic Success at my school to be a tutor for the nursing students here. I do pretty well in the classes and was recommended by a few of my professors. I immediately had the following conversation in my head:

me: No. Why would I want to do that?

my head: Because it's paid...and you need money.

me: But do I have the time? You know how much I stress about school work and grades...

my head: Right, but if you go over all of this nursing information every week, it might help you pass NCLEX.

me: Yeah...but I don't know...

my head: It's paid. You need money.

me: Okay, sold.

So, I agreed to tutor my fellow BSN classmates as well as the ASN students. My boss asked me if I could ever work any evening hours and I said, "Sure! Tuesday evenings from 5:30-6:30!" I'd already be on campus because of my med-surg class and I could just come over after that.

I figured she asked because a lot of people request evening times. Why else would you specifically ask for evening hours if they aren't needed, right? WRONG. I have worked every Tuesday this entire semester and no one has signed up for an evening tutor session. (Okay, 2 nights, but it was the same girl both times!) So ultimately I just sit here and study or twiddle my thumbs and get paid :) Fantastic!

So just a few things while I'm sitting here bored and updating the blog world on life:

I'm sure most people in the nursing world know about Kaplan. (A testing tool similar to the NCLEX) Our med-surg kaplan exam was today. I was stressed to say the least. I ended up with a 99 on it :) I exempted myself from the med-surg final! I'm just a tiny bit proud...
I have a presentation tomorrow and then it's *essentially* christmas break! (I have one online final Dec. 16th for gero...but come on- it's online!) I am beyond excited about this break. It is much needed!
North Carolina lost a great woman today. Elizabeth Edwards was probably one of the strongest women in the news and she passed away today from a 6 year battle with breast cancer. As a nurse and a woman this just broke my heart. I hope she's remembered for her dignity and grace instead of her good-for-nothing, lying, cheating husband.
As soon as I get home, I'm going to be getting my bridesmaid's gifts together! I've figured out a very cute way to ask them--I can't wait to give them out! (I also can't wait to show you guys what I thought of! You all gave me some very good ideas!)
Last but certainly not least, thank you to everyone who reads my blog. I know I'm not married (yet!), or a mom (again, yet!...for a very, very long time, ha!), and I really don't lead a very exciting life so I feel like my blog is kind of self-centered and I really don't mean for it to be like that! But I so appreciate everyone who takes the time to read it and those of you who always leave me sweet comments. You all are really amazing!

Okay, enjoy your evening and I've got a funny picture for Wordless Wednesday tomorrow:) Here's a hint: Happy Hanukkah!

Christmas Party Time!

2010-12-05T19:11:00.004-05:00

This weekend I hosted the first Christmas party of the year! Unfortunately, everyone except 3 people bailed last minute.* But we partied it up anyway and had a wonderful time! Here are some pictures of the decorations...perhaps you can figure out just what type of party this was:

I traveled through the seven levels of the candy cane forest,

past a sea of swirly-twirly gumdrops,

And then, I walked through the Lincoln tunnel!

Still can't figure it out?

How about now?

Yep! We had an Elf party! One of my friends has never seen the movie, so we hosted this party in her honor! Here is our spread of food! (minus the popcorn Seana and Bob brought, the homemade brownies Dev brought, and the pizza we ordered for dinner!)

*These pretzel bites are amazing.

Don't the cupcakes look delicious?! Even though most people didn't show up, it turned out quite cozy and we all had a blast :) I have one week left of classes, a few exams and I am D-O-N-E with the semester! I am looking forward to doing my crafts and getting my christmas shopping done. I better enjoy it this year since I won't be able to next year :) How were your weekends??

*I think it's really rude to tell someone you are going to do something and then, last minute, change your mind. I think it's even ruder to tell someone you're coming and then not bother to tell them you aren't coming! Yep, I literally had to ask some of these people if they were still coming or not. I know I'm on my soapbox, but honestly, if you say you are going to do something, then follow through with it. Okay, enough of my rant! :) **Although this does exclude those who 1) told me previously they wouldn't be able to make it and 2) those who had legitimate emergencies and really had to cancel.

I Should be Cleaning...

2010-12-03T15:46:00.003-05:00

...but I'm not. I'm hosting an "Elf" party tomorrow for some of my friends because one of them has never seen the movie! It's too good a movie to pass up so in honor of her first time, we are partying it up! I should be cleaning and crafting for my company tomorrow, but you know what? I just don't want to right now. I have much more productive things to be doing, like blogging and waiting for David to get here. That's productive, right? So just some random thoughts to help round out your Fridays :)

- Do you think I should make a christmas blog? This one is kind of fall-ish and it's definitely not fall anymore. I don't have the money right now to pay to have a blog made for me (poor, pitiful me!) but there are some super cute free ones out there somewhere I'm sure! What to do, what to do? Help!

- This is my newest craft.

Perhaps you spotted it atop my head in this post? It's cute, yeah? And I love the puff ball on top! (I'm fairly positive the proper name isn't "puffball" but, what's a girl to do when she doesn't know the real name for it??)

- Wedding details are slowly being made! We sign our contract for our venue on Monday and I've picked out my colors! (ish....) I'm hoping to get a lot of this out of the way over break, any time lines from you newly married girls out there?? :)

-My granddaddy and I were at Starbucks today (you know, our traditional weekly starbucks dates :) ) and there was a girl studying in there. This nice man came in to get a cup of coffee and bought her a snack and left it with her with a note. How nice was that?? Talk about holiday spirit!

- I suppose I should start cleaning now. Bummer. But only 22 days until Christmas! Happy Friday y'all!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-12-01T11:27:00.003-05:00

Poor Macy wasn't feeling well. She has a nasty ear infection-- so sweet boy kept his watch over her :)

Happy hump day!

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree

2010-11-30T17:04:00.003-05:00

Our traditional "get-the-christmas-tree-after-thanksgiving-day" was tainted on Friday with rain. It was nasty rain, too. So we (me and mom) decorated the house with everything but the tree. On Saturday morning it looked as if it hadn't rained at all! So my granddaddy, Uncle Mike, cousin Amy, her boyfriend Tyler, and I all piled into the SUV and headed up the mountain to get our trees! We always go to the same tree farm and the family that runs the place are just such nice, genuine people. They make finding a christmas tree so much fun! And the good part about it is we get to find the christmas tree and they cut it down and tie it to the top of our cars for us while we get to enjoy some nice, hot cocoa or apple cider :) Ahh, the joys of christmas tree shopping :)

I always have to get pictures of us on the way up. Amy and Tyler are probably the cutest couple ever...

I had to sport purple long johns and Clemson shirt to support my tigers!! They had a huge game that night--they lost...but I'm making the argument that actually we won because we get a new QB next year!! Woo hoo! Ours was just not getting the job done ;)

We had the best time picking out trees! Here is Amy's tree:

I honestly think this is the most perfect christmas tree we've ever had! Here is mine still at the tree farm:

And here it is all decorated :)

I'm so glad the holiday season is here! Two more weeks of school and then I'll be able to enjoy the Christmas season...but for now, I'm relaxing on the couch and going through lots of wedding magazines! (Thanks, V!) Happy first week of December!

Better Late than Never!

2010-11-26T17:04:00.003-05:00

The day after Thanksgiving, my granddaddy, uncle, cousin Amy, and me, always trekk up the mountain and get our christmas trees. This year, though, it's been raining non-stop. So we aren't getting our tree today, but tomorrow! So look for that post soon :)

I had a wonderful thanksgiving with my family :) David and I spent the holidays apart this year (well, we have every year so that's no different haha!) with our individual families so he's at home in Athens. I'm glad I'll have this holiday season to spend with my family because next year, I'll hopefully have a job, but being at the bottom wrung and in a profession that has to work even through the holidays, I'm pretty sure I'll be spending mine in the hospital :( So I'm enjoying it while I can!

My family is all about traditions. And I love it. Every year, I get up and watch the Macy's Day Parade on tv. I love watching all the floats and hearing about them from Matt, Katie, and Al (no one else will do!!) My grandparents live right down the road from us, so about noon we all (being mom, me, and Marley) pile into the car and head over there to help finish fixing lunch!

*Okay, I'm sorry, but isn't Marley's sweater/scarf "ensemble" too cute??*

All I can say is that I dearly hope you're thanksgiving menu was as good as mine! My grandmother is the best cook and she can cook a mean turkey! (and sweet potato casserole, and stuffing, and broccoli and cheese, etc....you get the point, right? ha!) It was possibly the most delicious thanksgiving meal yet!

Marley *loves* my granddaddy.

I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual:) This possibly might be why:

This was taken last year at Christmas, Marley was smart enough this year not to get caught sneaking turkey early ;)

We have yummy pies for dessert: pumpkin and pecan and a chocolate sheet cake that is to.die.for. No wonder I have to start working out every year after Thanksgiving! After lunch, we lounge around pretending that the tryptophan in the turkey is making us tired (did you read that article? We really don't eat enough to make us tired, darn it!) even though we know good and well it's just because we ate so much that now we become full and lazy. It's a wonderful feeling, really. Ha!

My cousins always go to their other grandparents house for thanksgiving dinner so I usually tag along. This year we had beef and vegetable stew with salad. And for dessert: banana pudding w/ cookies :) My favorite.

And what would a Thanksgiving post be without giving some thanks, right?

I'm so so so thankful for my family. They get on my nerves and drive me crazy, but I wouldn't be the person I am today without them! They always support me and I have such a strong-knit relationship with each one of them, I wouldn't trade it for the world!
I'm thankful for my fiance! It still seems weird seeing that word. I can't wait to see the man he will be in our marriage and I can't wait to see how we grow in our new relationship and where we will be 50 years from now!
I'm very thankful for my sweet Marley boy (yes, I'm one of "those" dog people ;) ). He is a pure momma's boy and that melts my heart. He doesn't want to sit with anyone but me, greet anyone but me, and be held by anyone but me. He gives sweet boy kisses and is so gentle-natured (but boy can he scare a booger out of the yard!) And bottom line is: no matter what, he loves me unconditionally. No.Matter.What.

There are thousands of other things I'm thankful for, but this post is getting pretty long. It looks to me like this Thanksgiving has been one for the books:) I hope yours was just as wonderful. Time to decorate for Christmas!

PS- here is my newest craft--

what do you think? It's a rosette headband and I got the idea from Jessica at love from texas. Go check her and her sweet babies out :)

10 Months

2010-11-24T17:48:00.003-05:00

10 months from this very date I will be getting married and celebrating with all of my close family and friends! I can't wait! Everyone says it will go by so fast, but I am thoroughly enjoying being engaged.

*I actually caught a smile! Love my fiance! *

Plans are in the works now, but I can't wait to get to the fun stuff like colors, bridesmaid's gifts, actually asking my bridesmaid's to be in my wedding, invitations, food for the reception...etc...

I also can't wait for engagement photos. Can. not. wait. :) I don't have a photographer picked out yet because I'm waiting to get my venue scheduled (pretty sure we know where, just working out some stuff!).

So my questions to you guys are: 1) any recommendations for photographers in the Charlotte area?? and 2) I need a cute way to ask my girls if they will be my bridesmaids...any ideas??! :)

*Apparently I've got a christmas kitty :)*

*Marley was getting in the christmas spirit...obviously enjoying it from the look on his face!*

Okay, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope everyone will be putting up decorations and I can't wait to see pictures! :)

*Our first christmas tree! I can't wait to spend the rest of my holiday's with him :) *

One More Day...

2010-11-17T13:29:00.004-05:00

...until Thanksgiving break begins! One 6 hour clinical stands in the way of me and a nice, week-long break! And I desperately need it! I've been sick since Sunday :( Some kind of stomach bug. Nasty stuff. But I'm finally starting to feel better and so thankful for that! I don't like making up clinicals...

But, I got some awesome news yesterday! My good friend Vanessa is getting married in September of next year. And dropped this pretty box off with me yesterday:

When I opened it, this is what I saw:

Yay! I'm so excited to be a bridesmaid for her! She is such a sweet person and Dave is a really lucky guy to get to spend his life with her. There was a very cute headband in the box as well as a lolly pop ring. She had also written a really sweet note to me and at the end said, "if you accept my invitation, will you please send me a picture to my e-mail of you wearing the ring and headband?" Seriously y'all, how cute is that idea????

So, here is the picture I sent her! :)

I am so excited to be able to share in her big day as one of her bridesmaids:) And I'm lucky to have such a wonderful friend!

It's a List!

2010-11-13T21:29:00.002-05:00

Well, it's Saturday night and my fiance (ahhh!) and I are curled up on the couch watching the Clemson game! I'm really not quite sure if we'll hold on to the lead haha! I love my tigers, but man, it has been a rough season. It's hard for me to watch my team make terrible plays so I decided to focus on updating on life...in a list of course.

1. On Wednesday, my mom, aunt, and I went to the Southern Christmas show. It's a huge gathering of crafty people selling all of their things for the Christmas season. The whole place is decorated with lights and trees and Christmas music. It's a lot of fun! But this year, we made our way to the Verizon trailer and let me just say, those guys were some good salesmen! My mom ended up with a new phone, my aunt ended up with two new phones, and I ended up with a droid galaxy. Say what? Yeah. I don't know how to use it.

2. We watched the Georgia/ Auburn game today and y'all, I'm all for a great team winning, but I really think sportsmanship is lacking in athletics these days. There was no reason for those Auburn players to start throwing punches at the end of the game when they were WINNING. It shouldn't be acceptable even when you're losing, but when you're winning? Ridiculous. Having a great team is good, but I think sportsmanship says a lot about a team. (*Note: I'm not ragging on Auburn, I know every team at some point in time has their players who show bad behavior, and I don't agree with any of it! And I think it's great Auburn has done so well this year!! :) )

3. My MOH (I have a maid of honor!!) and her boyfriend came up to visit this weekend! I love them :)

4. This is going to be a good week! My class on Monday was canceled and my class Wednesday was canceled! Which means I have class on Tuesday and clinicals on Thursday! :) And thennn, Thanksgiving break starts for me! I've got a few more venues to look at Monday and Wednesday and hopefully I'll know by the end of the week where and when I'm getting married! I'm leaving Thursday for David's and will be with him until Tuesday or Wednesday for thanksgiving:)

5. Only 42 more days until Christmas!!

Have a great weekend :)

The Story!

2010-11-04T19:25:00.005-04:00

I gave exciting news and then just disappeared! But I've got the story :)

I went to Greenville this past weekend and on Saturday David and I got up and decided to have a day just the two of us. We went to Cracker Barrel (in hopes of some Apple Streusel French toast, but alas, they didn't have any!) for breakfast. I did, however, get a very cute Clemson nutcracker! We decided to head to the mall for the day and had a ball just spending time together. David bought some new shoes and I bought a really cute vest from Banana Republic! And we also went to Target--which I loved because I love Target! We stocked up on candy for Halloween the next day :)

After our awesome day, David suggested we go to dinner at P.F. Chang's to finish off the great day we had. How could I turn that down? I love P.F. Chang's and I love him so off we went! We had a great conversation about everything we had enjoyed about the last four years and just had a really wonderful time with each other. I do not have a picture yet of the next part of this story but I promise it is true! (And I saved it, so I'll have a picture eventually!)

We got ready to go and got our fortune cookies. I opened mine and this is what it said, "There is a chance of a romantic encounter soon." I thought it was pretty cool and I showed David. He laughed too and we got up to go. I slipped it in my purse just for keeps--you know, sometimes you just have to keep those things :)

Up until this point, David had not acted strange at all! He was so cool and calm all day, I had NO IDEA this was coming. When we got home, David had me close my eyes and walked me to the back porch. When he told me to open my eyes, he was standing right in front of me and he was all I could see. He was acting kind of nervous but I just blew it off. He asked me how I enjoyed today and I told him I absolutely loved it (which I did! I never get to spend so much time with him!) and said, "I did too! I'm glad you enjoyed it." To which I replied, "yeah...why are we standing in the cold??" :) About that time, David hit his knee and this is what I saw behind him:

I was so surprised! David said something that for the life of me I can't remember because I was excited and surprised! He had the ring out and I said "yes!" about a hundred times and asked him if he was sure! He said, " I didn't think you would try to talk me out of it!" :) It took me a minute to actually understand it was all happening, but then I started crying and jumping around like a fool in love!

David's Aunt Sherri wanted us to come see her at a Halloween party she was at so we headed over there and on our way, saw a shooting star!! Which may mean nothing but one of the very first times David and I ever went out, he took me to his family's lake house at night and we laid out on the dock and saw a shooting star! To me, the shooting star that night just solidified everything--David and I were meant to be together :)

On halloween, we had David's friends Casey and Brian over to make pizza and watch tv while the trick-or-treaters came over. We set the pumpkins out front and everyone who came by wanted to know my answer, so I had to show off my ring!

It was such a wonderful weekend and just in case you were wondering--Marley and Jovie had an absolute blast greeting trick-or-treaters at the door ;)

I hope you've had a fabulous week and have a wonderful weekend!

Hi, My Name Is.....

2010-11-01T07:54:00.002-04:00

....the future Mrs. Bell!!!

How he asked me.

My teary-eyed first picture being engaged to the love of my life!

The Mr. and soon-to-be Mrs!

(*I'll tell the whole story later!)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-27T11:30:00.003-04:00

He's back!! :) (He's the cute one on the left!)

First Ever!

2010-10-15T22:14:00.002-04:00

Okay y'all, being fall break, I had a lot of time on my hands today, so here is my very first ever applique! My mom had a burp cloth laying around so I decided to applique it:) Just remember, it's my first so hopefully after some practice those mistakes will disappear!! (I can hope right? ha!)

The photo quality is kind of stinky because I took the picture with my phone...because David has my camera in Germany...but you already knew that! :)

Just an Update!

2010-10-15T12:06:00.002-04:00

Hi all!

I just thought I'd update a little on life. No pictures because my camera is still in Germany with David! :) Thursday and Friday of this week have been fall break. I don't know what it is, but I just have NO motivation whatsoever to do any schoolwork. It's really not a good thing because I still have 7 weeks left of this semester! I'm tired of reading, studying, tests, papers...I would love nothing more than to work on my sewing and reading books I actually want to read! I'd even take cleaning the house over schoolwork--and I hate to clean! :)

I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but hopefully some motivation will pop up somewhere unexpected soon.

David is having a great time in Germany and I am so happy about that! I love to travel and I was really hoping that he would get the "traveling bug" when he saw how different the world is. He gets to go to Austria for a day next week and I told him I am SO jealous! I've heard it's beautiful there and I would love to go there one day. He also was invited to play soccer with some of the german guys this coming Monday--oh my he is SO beside himself! He has played soccer his whole life, even had a few offers to play professionally, but decided to take the work route, so he is loving the fact that he's going to get to play soccer in a place where soccer is THE sport!

There's not much going on today for me. My mom and her teacher friends were having some kind of planning luncheon today and I was asked to bring their food. We have a new restaurant here called Newk's. Ever heard of it? It's pretty good. But today I got broccoli cheese soup and a side salad. I love broccoli cheese soup from Panera so I thought I'd like Newk's as well---turns out I don't like it so much. I've got to clean up a little bit because mom's friend Mecia is coming in to town for a friend's wedding. And since I would rather clean than study--I'm cleaning! :) I'm also going to work on learning how to applique. That's my newest sewing adventure. Do any of you have any tips for me?? I need all the help I can get!! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and weekend! I'm headed to the Clemson game tomorrow to watch them retire CJ Spiller's jersey!! Go Tigers! :)