Breathtaking

The moon is so beautiful.

Thanks to Reddit for the link.

Awwwww

Love you, babe!

Nephews

Baby B in the spotlight, with big brother E busily playing in the background. J and I are hoping to make the trek to visit these two sometime soon. It hasn't been too long since we last saw the family, but kids grow so fast that even a few weeks make a difference!

Photo by: EthanRahe c/o Flickr

Furniture Frenzy

...or the beginning of one, at least. A beautiful new mission-style bedroom suite is scheduled to be delivered to our door anytime after 7AM tomorrow and we absolutely cannot wait to see the transformation! J and I have had our eye on this set for about 4 months now, and are in perfect harmony about our choice, having never wavered from this particular design. Completing the bedroom was top priority by a longshot, but a new sofa, lamps, area rugs, and more are to come...all in due time, but of course the sooner the better! :-)

In other creative home improvement news, I found this Lowe's offshoot to be particularly helpful and inspiring. The catalog showed up in our mailbox, and I decided to check into the website as well. Enjoy.

OK Go - A Million Ways

Yay! Love this follow-up to the infamous treadmill masterpiece. :-) Thanks to IMF for bringing OK GO back into my atmosphere after a temporary misfiling.

Happy 4 Years to Us!
Today marks four years from the day we met, and our first date followed soon after. Lots of wonderful things have happened to us since that date, including engagement and marriage, graduation and a new career beginning for me, several academic honors and achievements for J, new houses to makes home, and innumerable happy memories all along the way.
I love you, sweet J!

I See Fruit Salad in Our Future

Boo.

My favorite magazine, which I very recently re-subscribed to, has been canned. I am now the new and not impressed owner of a 9-month subscription to Glamour magazine. I'll give it a chance, but I won't be happy about it - bring Jane back!

Destin, FL - July 2007
Photo by A

I've Been Thinking...

..that I should write more often to stir my creative juices. I do have some. :-)

..that I have an amazing hubby who is just the blend of teddy bear and brick wall that I need and love.

..that I can't remember how I ever survived without satellite radio. I am an XM addict. (Thanks, sweet J!)

..that I really miss my friends from college, and really need to make a better effort to stay in touch.

..that we are finally making this fabulous house look like a fabulous home.

..that my job rules. But it's tough, especially lately being so busy and independent with an overload of 6 rowdy patients with multiple pain pumps, glucommanders, heparin drips, insulin drips, multiple units of blood needed, and then some. But that's shop talk. :-)

..that we should go to more cocktail parties because I felt darn smashing in my little black dress with my hand holding the arm of my hot hubby in his blue power tie/new dress shirt combo at the faculty cocktail buffet last night.

..that I want to take trips, vacations, and journeys every single month, which probably isn't very practical but a fun goal nonetheless.

..that staying up all night feels entirely normal these days.

..that I want to hit the pool at least once a week until the end of the summer heat. Success for the past 2 weeks!

..that I can't wait for our new TV to arrive, and I really am going to want that new sofa to sit on while watching that shiny new LCD.

..that I want to continue staying in touch with my in-laws because we have a good thing going, and appreciating family is important on both sides.

..that my little brothers are growing up really fast.

..that I've almost been married a year and a half! Wowzers.

..that I just might join the awesome gym affiliated with my hospital, because it would probably give me more incentive to work out than solely running/walking around the neighborhood does, especially with the hot days and mosquito nights.

..that I seriously love the cute comfort of Crocs. I now own 3 pairs and J has some, too!

..that I still miss my grandfather, Leland, terribly and probably will never stop thinking of how much we could have talked about then and right now.

..that Lean Cuisine frozen meals really aren't that bad when you're in a hurry or don't feel like making much effort for a solo/semi-healthy meal! :-)

..that I should blog more. But this was a good start.

Overdue

Though not by much...still, I owe our little website an update of our fabulous anniversary adventure.

Coming soon...but not too soon as I will be working the next three nights.

There is always next week, said the half-full half of the marriage (Randy's lunchtime proclamation). Even more news, J got a sweet new car! Covered on Flickr - go look! :-)

(Belated) First Anniversary

Officially on the road for a belated but fabulous First Anniversary adventure! Our trip starts in Highlands, NC and will then sweep us away to Asheville, NC for a few romantic, relaxing, and fun-filled days in the city.

As of May 20, 2007, we've tucked one year of wedded bliss under our belts, with a lifetime of love to come!
xo

Jerry's Photo Skills Rule!

Indeed, I am quite biased. But not blind -- see for yourself! :-)
July 21, 2007.
~Baby Bryce's Baptism~

Happy 4th of July!

Yes, I do keep forgetting tomorrow is a national holiday, since the hospital never closes, sleeps, or goes on holiday. I will be spending the day in bed and the evening at work, taking care of all the fireworks gone wrong victims. Am I complaining? No, not really. I enjoy trauma. Perhaps I will at least wear patriotic scrubs. :-)

P.S. No fireworks in these parts, please. South Georgia has just killed off the wildfire that raged for weeks and added a new tab to history, and I am certain the Earth longs for no more scars.

Poor Fatty

My cat is upset.

Fatty is not taking to the move very well, and he's making us suffer. During the day, he's fine — or I guess he's fine, since he picks a spot and hides all day long. It's the early morning hours that he gets lonely, or vindictive, or something. He comes up to the bedroom door and starts wining. And wining. He'll pause for a minute or two to lull me into a false sense of calm, letting me almost drift back to sleep before he hits me — WAHHHH! — with another round, an aggressive and persistent enemy pounding at the gates. I just lay there feeling my blood pressure rise.

Even if I get up, that doesn't help. I can be downstairs with him, and he'll still walk around wining. Mwwwarrrr! . . . Whhhharrrr! . . . Hrrrwwwwaaarr! I'm not sure what to do for him, and Autumn's losing patience. Shoot, I'm losing patience.

I wish I knew what to do for him. I thought that after two weeks, he would start behaving normally again. I think that part of the problem is the nearly constant stream of strangers we've had flowing through since we moved in. Still, even though the flood has ebbed a bit, we have someone ring the doorbell almost daily. Fatty's eyes widen, his head pops up, he scrunches down, and he slinks into his hiding spot. Then we don't see him the rest of the day, but we know he's there, sometime around 4 am.

I'm not sure what's made my 17-pound cat such a wimp. Anna is an Achilles to Fatty's Elpenor. She's already Queen of the house, taking long naps on the couch and basking in the extra space. She can probably sleep now 'cause Fatty's not around to bug her all the time. Poor poor Fatty.

I hope he gets over it soon. I need some sleep.

Another London Summer Bomb Scare?

Since I am a full time nightshift girl now, I happened to be up watching TV around 4am and I flipped by the international news channel innocently enough, only to slow to a screeching halt there and stay glued for a half an hour or more. According to news sources, a very large and crude car bomb was found near the popular Picadilly Circus area around 2am London time, and since has fortunately been defused by police. Still, this news brought a creepy sort of flashback from my own study abroad summer there that was clouded and temporarily halted by the horrific bombings of July 7th, 2005.

Flickr eyewitness photos can be seen here and here. BBC has excellent coverage, and I will be keeping up with this one, as I hope this recent threat has passed completely.

Hooray!!!

I received my results from NCLEX at exactly 11:30 this morning, and was overjoyed to get the good news I'd been hoping for - I passed and I am an official RN now! Yay! :-) In fact, I was given 77 questions before the exam cut off, which according to the pass/fail rules means that I measured significantly above the passing standard. Even more awesome. I am beyond relieved and so full of the happiness! Big thanks to everyone who supported and encouraged me, especially my sweet hubby.

This has been an exceptionally good day: not only did I become an official RN, but we also closed on our house and in the closing process scored a sweet check to put toward our new TV & sofa fund. Yay! As of Monday, let the moving begin!

Eeek!

I went ahead and did it - I finally received my Authorization to Test (ATT), and I scheduled myself to take the NCLEX on June 13th. I am so nervous!!! But, I'm excited about getting it over with, and also glad to finally have target date to hopefully motivate me to get busy with the self review and studying between now and then. Oh, my...

In other news, I am planning to post something of a "year in review" series to reflect on our first year of marriage. Look for that soon, assuming anyone is around to actually read this. (Insert unsure/hopeful smile here).

First Anniversary!

Happy one year anniversary to my baby! It has been a fabulous adventure, and we're just getting started. :-) Thanks so much for everything you do, everything you are, and everything else.

I Love You.

More on Flickr.

The Return of the Mojito

Mmm. This summer drink has been a long time coming, but it is finally back in my orbit. And, deliciously so! This batch is even more special than the last since the mint leaves are home grown - planted by my hands, nurtured by J's diligent watering, and fed by the sunlight of our front porch.

The recipe:

2 parts rum
1.5 parts lime juice
10 mint leaves
1.5 teaspoons fine sugar
soda water

Put mint leaves and sugar in the bottom of a highball glass. Using your muddler, muddle that stuff until it's a paste. Add a bit of soda to clean your muddler and loosen up the mint paste. Add lime, rum, and ice. Top off with soda water and stir to combine. Yum.
Thanks to J for the photo and the yummy drink that I am enjoying as I type. All this and more on a beautiful one-year anniversary weekend. :-)