Day 182 & 183

Once again...puppies.... easy photo target. I promise the pics will be more creative after today.

So I'm finally done! Done working my eight days in a row, and it feels amazing!

Tomorrow I am going out to eat and shopping with Becky and Nikki! I'm super pumped. It's going to be a blast!

I'm trying to have some fun on my days off. Thursday is the Gambler game, and Saturday I'm having a photoshoot with Angie and Jason. I get to play photographer! :) Yay! Then Sunday is the SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!

But like these puppies, I'm exhausted. SO I'm heading to kick them off my side of the bed! Night ya'll!

Day 181

Holy snow!!! :)

So I just finished day 6 of 8 at work. And it was a nice and slow day. Makes for a good week! I'm so ready to pass out. I'm just exhausted. Doesn't help that I got up super early today either. *yawn*

I just wanted to get on here and throw up a picture. I promise to have better pictures to post next week when I have lots of time off. That will be my no-work goal! Hope you all have a great Sunday!

Day 179 & 180

Well here I sit. On call again. Twice in one week! Amazing. It makes working eight days in a row bearable. It also gives my brain a chance to rest. Last night was chaotic. We only had two nurses to start out.... and only eight patients.... which means we each got 2 admissions and had to call in another nurse to help with the other 3.... grand total of 7 admissions. And one of my patients passed away, so I had to stay late to wrap up loose ends there. I felt so scatterbrained the whole shift, especially with two post-cath patients.

I woke up today and felt even more scatterbrained. I dug through all of my gifts and boxes of wedding garb so I could find my cousin's purse she had borrowed me for the wedding. And

it wasn't in the box with my bouquet and muff. :( So thus began a frantic search, which included running out to the church to see if it got left there. It wasn't there, so I messaged all of the bridesmaids. Hopefully it shows up soon. I feel really bad because I know it was the clutch she used for her wedding too and I'm not sure what type of sentimental value it has. :( I also ran to my mom's work today to deposit late wedding gifts. And then had to run to the mall. But I did get to see Cora and Kalena at the mall, which snapped me back into reality for a moment. Then I rushed home and have been busy getting for work.... just to get called off. Now it's time to sit back and breathe. *sigh*

I figured since I have the time I could update you on my progress with my LIST! Some of you may know that I have a list of '101 things to do in 1,001 days'. I've put a good dent in my list! It started on 8/11/10 and this is what I've gotten done so far and which day I accomplished them on:

Day 2 - Wish on a shooting star

Day 3 - Make an earring holder

Day 8 - Attend Packers training camp

Day 13 - Find "happy ball" earrings for mom

Day 17 - Go to Art Street

Day 21 - Watch Breakfast at Tiffany's

Day 29 - Clean the entire house

Day 30 - Donate old clothes

Day 39 - Go to a Packer game

Day 62 - Pass the NCLEX

Day 62 - Get a job

Day 72 - Go to a Gambler game

Day 90 - Remodel the bathroom

Day 121 - Get a mani and pedi

Day 122 - Get Married

Day 125 - Start my doula training

Day 125 - Go to Jamaica

Day 129 - Have a weekend away with Josh and no cell phones

Day 142 - Get a kiss at midnight on New Year's

Day 146 - Buy a lottery ticket

Day 150 - Exercise every day for 1 week

Day 150 - Read 5 new books

Day 154 - Dye my hair

Day 163 - Go to a concert (Brad Paisley)

Day 164 - Spend a weekend in Door County

Day 167 - Beat Josh in a game of Scrabble

In Progress:

Visit three different states (1 down, 2 to go)

Hide 5 love notes in the house for Josh (3 down, 2 to go)

Maybe I'll use my free time to work on some more of the items on my list!!!! Hope everyone has a good Friday!!!!! *fingers crossed for no call-ins*

Welcome Day 178!

So I don't have a picture for today, but I still want to make a post. I've been starting to meditate, which is something I never really tried before. The first few times I found podcasts online that were meant to relax and explore different feelings. Those worked well, but some were so long and I became so relaxed that I would fall asleep! Oops! The past week I've been doing my own thing. For a while I tried focusing on my breathing and just clearing my mind. It is really hard to clear your mind for long. So now I'm focusing on just one word instead, and exploring whatever thoughts come into my mind. At first it was hard to find "the word". I tried darn near 100 words: peace, body, love, blue, exchange, ect. But I finally found my word, and it has become the theme in my everyday life.

Welcome.

I meditate with 'welcome', I pray with 'welcome'. I welcome everyday and the challenges or changes that come with it. My outlook on things has definitely picked up and things go much more smoothly.

Welcome to my blog. Welcome to a small insight into my life. :)

Early Day 177

December 11, 2001

I woke up that morning to falling snow. That much was expected. In fact, a blizzard was expected... Snow Storm Aiden was headed for us! It took my mom and Ashley a bit longer than normal to get to my house, but they eventually showed up and we made it to the hair salon. Shannon did a fantastic job on my hair! It wasn't like the picture, but it was exactly what I needed for the day!

In the mean time... Josh had to stop at DuBois to fix our one wedding glitch. When the tuxes came in they came with mint green ties..... WRONG! Oh so wrong! Initially, I had to specialty order the navy ones I wanted, so DuBois had to fly them in the night before the wedding. Luckily they made it here despite the snow and Josh was able to pick them up and get them to the boys! Disaster avoided!

After getting hair done, I met the rest of the girls at the church to get ready. Getting ready before the wedding was the only time I cried. I had just gotten my dress on and Bobby called. Bobby is my brother who couldn't make it to the wedding due to his Air Force pilot training schedule. He made me cry. He should know better than to call after I put my make-up on. I so wish him and Cassie could've been there. That is the only thing I would change about the whole day.

Before the ceremony, with Josh safely hidden away, we took pictures. We did family pictures and pictures of the bridesmaids. I had no jitters. I was so ready for the day. It was so nice seeing all of my family as they came trickling in. With every new person showing up, I got more excited! Then it was the big moment!!!!

I remember walking down the aisle, and seeing everyone's smiling faces. I didn't get choked up like I thought I would, all I could think about was getting my butt down to the front of that aisle and be with Josh. We rehearsed the stand up/sit down drill many times, and Josh still got it wrong! He sat down when everyone else was standing, and I had to pull him back up! Everyone got a good laugh out of that, and it set the tone for our ceremony.

As we sat up there, I didn't realize that everyone could see my big furry boots! But hey, I was ready for the snow! While we were sitting, I kept looking out into the crowd to see who showed up. I spied my nursing friends which was really exciting! During the homily Father Dave gives us words to live by. Josh got his word first: Passion. My word is: Playful. And our word together: Prayerful. And then came the quiz.... Father Dave asked Josh what his word was. Josh blanked. He listens to Father Dave just as much as he listens to me! Haha! He goes, "I want to say Patience but that isn't it... passionate?" Haha, he was so close! My silly boy.

Then we said our vows, exchanged rings, and lit our unity candle. Afterwards we went down and hugged our wedding party and parents. Our mothers both did so good not crying during the ceremony, the bridesmaids on the other hand were a mess! Haha!

After the ceremony we had our receiving line. There I really got to see who showed up and talk to a few people. Then we took more pictures. Then it was party time.... wedding party time that is!

For pictures we went to a park across from the zoo. After we were done with all of the formal pictures we decided we would rather play! So we had a classic snowball fight, boys against girls!

I think the boys may have

won. I got a snowball smashed on my head by the best man, and I stepped on my dress and ripped it! But no worries... we McGyver-ed it with a bobby pin until we got to Curly's pub, where Angie met us and sewed it up!

Then we went to the hall. The dinner and cake all tasted amazing! Next came the dancing! For our first dance we danced to "The Greatest Story Ever Told" by Oliver James. My father-daughter dance was to "My Little Girl" by Tim McGraw. And the mother-son dance was to "The Woman in My Life" by Phil Vassar.

The dancing lasted all night! My nursing friend, Brian, caught the garter, and my aunt's foreign exchange student, Anna, caught the bouquet. That was really cool because it was her first American wedding. As the night dwindled down, it came time for the last dance. He played our first dance song and had us in the middle of the dance floor, with all of the remaining guests circled around us. It was a neat way to end the night. Then the party moved to the casino for all the late night partiers!

It was such a great day! If I could relive our wedding every day, I would. Everything went off without a hitch, and was tons of fun! Even the snow didn't scare off our guests. There were so many people, and so much love! It was perfect! Life as newlyweds has been perfect so far also. I'm living my dream!

Day 176

Have you ever had a secret that is so exciting your body feels like its going to explode and the secret will pour out everywhere?! Oh my gosh, that is how I feel right now. After last night's game, I didn't think anything could be better than the Packers going to the Superbowl. But boy was I wrong! I went to Hobby Lobby's grand opening this morning with mom and just about spilled the beans only 100 times! But I've been good. These lips are sealed for a little while at least!

Go Pack Go!!!!!

Day 174 & 175

What a fantastic weekend!

For starters, I can cross off #12: Spend a weekend in Door County.

Yesterday was Keri's 40th birthday, so we surprised her with a girls' weekend in Door County! Jessica, Dyan and I left 20 minutes early and drove up to a restaurant in Sturgeon Bay. And then Keri and my mom showed up, thinking it was just her and my mom.... She was so surprised to see Jess and I sitting at the table, and even more surprised when Dyan popped out! She cried. She thought it was sooo cool that we all got together!

Our first stop was to the winery, where we eat got 6 bottles of wine! We were set to go! Next we hit up some shops. Talk about power shopping! Most shops closed around 4 or 5pm.... and we started shopping at 3! We were very successful and found a lot of neat buys!

Then it was out to dinner and back to the hotel. We enjoyed our chocolate wine poolside. We were in the hot tub for roughly three hours! Then we hung out in the room for a bit and crashed for the night. This morning we took our time to get ready before heading back on the road.

We got back into town just in time for the football game!!!!!! The Packers did so well, especially Tim! I can't wait for the Superbowl in two weeks! So glad I don't work! After today's game Lambeau was lighting off fireworks! Go Pack Go!

Well tomorrow starts my eight day working streak.... I'm bound to get burned out but it will be so worth it the following week when I have tons of time off! Work will also distract me from the other things that have been on my mind lately. I'm not likely to get much biking done this week.....lame.....*Deep breath* Ready, set, go!

Day 172 &173

So I didn't post a wedding summary last night because.....

I got last minute tickets to the Brad Paisley & Darius Rucker concert!!!!!!

Jodi's date bailed, so I got his ticket. And Tadd bailed, so Aubrey got his ticket. It was so awesome!

Jerrod Niemann was the opening act. He play for 20-30 minutes. He did some covers and then the two songs he has out on the radio. And thinking it would be a kid friendly concert: the third word of his first song was an f-bomb. Way to go Jerrod...

Then Darius came out. His voice melts me. I did get a video of one of his songs but failed to note that I recorded it vertically....aka it plays sideways! Duh! He played for about an hour. Sang some Hootie, sang some Darius. All was well in the world.

Then Brad Paisley came out. He had amazing screens and things going on behind him during his songs. He was all over the stage too. We were right next to the ramp that he would run down and play on. For picture above: he was right in front of us and even gave Tyler one of his guitar pics! Then during one of his songs a dude comes out wearing flannel..... o.m.f.g. Aaron Rodgers! It was soooo cool. He was high-fiving everyone and even sang a line or two. After he left the screaming died down.... (you can't bring Aaron Rodgers into an arena the weekend before the NFC Championship game and expect to not lose your voice or be able to hear!) Brad made a huge loop through the arena and even played a song in the middle of the arena on a small platform.

For the encore, Brad came back out in a packer shirt! He played Ticks and Alcohol. For the song Alcohol, the two opening acts came out, along with Aaron Rodgers, Mason Crosby and quite a few other Packers. I guess Clay Matthews was at the concert, my cousin saw him but he wasn't on stage to my knowledge. I got a high-five from Darius. *love*

All in all a great night! The whole shebang lasted just over 4 hours! So needless to say I got nothing else done!

It's been a long time since I've been to a concert and this was definitely worth the wait!

Day 170 &171

Only here can you get a sneak peek of my post-ceremony wedding pictures! Because if you read my posts, well, frankly you deserve it! Haha! I already put up one album on facebook of the ceremony and posed photos. I will be putting up the post-ceremony album after I go through all the pictures with Josh's family tomorrow. I want them to have a chance to see them first.

My pictures are so awesome, sure there are a few shots I wish we would've gotten that we missed, but that happens to everyone. Now I just need to pick which ones and how I want them displayed.

Maybe tomorrow I will do a giant wedding post complete with pictures and summary of the day. :) Our wedding was so fun, I wish we could have a wedding every day! (Josh would not like to pay for a wedding every day.... party pooper)

Well, time to go enjoy the last 3ish hours I have before going into work. I hope everyone has a happy hump day!!!!

Go Pack Go!!!!!

Day 169

Happy Snow Day! I will grace you with pictures of puppies in the snow! :)

So I've been an emotional basket case lately. It is so lame. I'm lame. Haha. I cried when my patient died yesterday. I had no emotional connection to her at all, didn't know her family, nothing. Yet after the fact, I cried. I have never cried when my patients died before, but this past week or so has been crazy. F* hormones and being a chick.

I'm super pumped for tomorrow. I'm going to head to the DMV to get my license updated, and then in the afternoon I'm going to pick up my wedding pictures from the photographer!!!! So you can sure bet that the next few days will have photos from the weddings! :) Be excited people, be excited.

Day 165-168

I miss Jamaica!!!!

My friend got married the same day we did and just posted her pictures of Barbados. It made me miss Jamaica soooooo much. I have no desire to go to Barbados, Hawaii, or any other tropical place. I LOVE JAMAICA. I love David and his family. I love the atmosphere. I love how kind everyone is. I miss it. Tom is already planning a trip back there with him and Kelly and me and Josh.

So work is giving me more hours. I'm excited, yet at the same time I'm afraid of burnout. I will enjoy the paycheck at the end, but it is going to be long hours to get there. When they schedule me for full time hours, it is much longer than full time. A typical shift is 8.5 scheduled hours. I get to work 30 minutes early to prep, and more than 50% of the days we get stuck there for an extra 15-30 minutes. Which makes the standard 40 hour work week turn into 45-50 hour work week. All I've been doing is eat, sleep, work. Eat, sleep, work. I'm trying to eat healthier just for the fact that I'm so exhausted I barely work out.

Now that holidays and weddings are over, I'm working on finding my stride and balance between work and life. *yawn*

My next day off is Tuesday and I have awesome amazing things planned! Can't wait!

Day 164

Today is the day of big reveals!!!!! After much anticipation I cut my hair!!!

Usually after a bride works so hard to grow her hair out for a wedding she runs off and chops it all right away. I thought about this. I considered donating to Locks of Love again. But I decided not to shock Josh's system (he didn't know I was going in). So I took off a couple inches, added some layers, added some bangs, and dyed the crap out of it: darker with red highlights. And I love it!!!! This is the first time she nailed my cut and color to a tee! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Other than that, I worked today. It was a crappy day for every single nurse at work. Boo. But my classy new hair helped me cope with the crappiness! Now off to read my new book delivered from Amazon today!!!!! I'll have it done by the end of the week! :)

Day 162 & 163

O.M.G. Cutest puppy ever! AKA- the only puppy who would do a "down & stay" without the use of treats. She has such big puppy eyes. *love*

Well, I have no current or cool life events to report at this time. I worked yesterday and this morning. But stay tuned for tomorrow.... BIG UPDATE!!!! With cool pictures!

I've been kinda down in the dumps the past two days. Haven't been feeling up to par. Don't really feel like doing much of anything. Very blah.

But a bottle of wine just found it's way to the fridge, so that is something to look forward to.

Well, that is all..... blah!!!! Hopefully tomorrow is just the pick-me-up that I need! Stay tuned...

Day 158-161

So I didn't exactly take this picture, but it is this or nothing because I'm lazy. I'm in the middle of a huge project so my camera had been tied up taking pictures of the progress, and all will be revealed later! :)

My thoughts are going wild today, so I'm going to list them to separate them out:

• THE PACKERS WON!!!!!! I'm sooo excited! And during the Packer game I biked 44.5 miles. That puts me at 167.3 miles in 2011 so far! So awesome!

• I've been working quite a bit lately. Put in my first catheter and my first death. I'm sure I will have many other firsts as time goes on. Work is going good so far. I'm just coming off a three day weekend and will be working 5 days this week. $$$ :)

• Things are being put together all over the house: my crafting project, my baker's rack, my jewelry box. Our house is becoming much more of a home and I love it!

• Which brings me to the realization that now that we are married we need to sort out the next steps... houses? babies? or sitting on cruise control? I think we finally have a lead on sorting out the housing situation and how to pay off student loans while saving up for a house. The big blur in the future is slowly taking shape.

I also feel like I'm at such a different place than many of my friends. I have a lot of family and a few friends who are married and settled down, but for the most part all of my friends are single. A couple have serious boyfriends, but are not so serious as to be living with them. I've seen it happen numerous times where after you start to have a family the non-committed friends drift away. I have a pretty strong feeling about the people who are in for the long haul, but it is hard to know which of the others will drift. When you are different places in life common ground is often hard to find. But many of you reading this, probably know this and are sick of my rambling.... I digress. Just some of the many things I think about when I look toward the future and what it might hold.

On the other hand,.... my future starts tomorrow! I can't wait! Bring it on!

Day 154-157

It's my birthday and I don't feel like up loading a picture! So there!

It is so amazing to not get an inbox full of "Happy Birthday" facebook messages! That is what happens when you remove your birthday from facebook. I got 5 fbook birthday wishes and maybe 4 texted ones. My favorite was the first one when I woke up this morning. It was a video text of my littlest cousin singing Happy Birthday. A-dorable!

But since the world doesn't revolve around me on my birthday, I had to work. Despite 2 bat-crazy bed jumpers, it was all in all a good night on 7th floor. When I got home from work Josh had a card for me.... a card! He hasn't given me a card in 3 years! I'm so proud of him. Even more so because it was a colonoscopy-joke on the card. (He gets my nerdiness! :) ) It also said "find the frame..." which lead me on a mad-dashing scavenger hunt through the house for the new picture frame. He found one that works so well with the rest of mine! More points for him. And then I opened it and there was a gift card inside! Love that man!

But alas my birthday is over, thus beginning my 24th year of life. Between the new calendar year and being the next year older, it is going to be a fabulous year! I can't wait for all of the excitement that will be coming my way! Peace out holmes!

(PS- I lift things up and put them down.)

Day 153

Happy New Year!!!!

A new year, a new beginning!

Today I got to meet Josh's coworker: Charlie Brown. Poor soul who's parents gave him that name. We went out for lunch with him and his girlfriend. They were both super nice.

Then was time to clean house. It felt so good! The house has been a disaster since we got back from the honeymoon. All the chaos of the wedding and the honeymoon and the holidays destroyed the house! Now we are fresh and clean and ready to unpack all of our wedding goodies!!! :)

Then Kelly came over and we watched the big Badger upset in the Rose Bowl. Booooo.....

Now I'm just chilling. Taking a deep cleansing breath, and figuring out what is going to happen next in life. I don't want to be one of those people who get caught up in work and before I know it, it's next year. I don't want that. I want to have goals and accomplish things and enjoy the year. This is the first year I'm not in school. I don't have big plans that life has set out for me, so now I get to set my own! And it is going to be so exciting!

This is my African violet from my grandma. I have four of them and they never bloom. Grandma's violets were always in bloom.... I don't know how she did it. But just in time for Christmas, my first Christmas without Grandma, it bloomed. I've never seen anything more beautiful. I'm having such a hard time accepting the loss of my grandma even still. At times it still doesn't feel real. But each day is a new day, and things are getting a little brighter.