Self Update

I havent updated in a while! You see, Ive been quite the busy beaver the past month or so! New job! I work at Tanner Villa Rica as a Nurse Tech (hired on to transition to ER Nurse upon Graduation). I absolutely love it! It is so much to fun feel like I'm ALMOST doing my dream job.. sort of. You see, I still have a desire to be a Pediatric Nurse.. more so than ever before. But I am already guarenteed a job as a RN at Villa Rica ER. While the ER is fun and I see lots of interesting things on a daily basis.. I have to say that I continuously feel more at ease when Children come into the ER. They are my calling! I hope when we get PEDS patients that they will be in MY rooms just so I can feel that amazing feeling I get EVERYTIME I work with a child in the hospital setting! AH.. butterflies in my tummy just thinking about it :) I'm giving much thought to the fact that I am 9 months away from graduating! (I am only counting the months that I have classes left)!!!! Where am I going to go afterwards? Am I ready for the "Adult World?" Can I hack it? Am I still going to buy my own house upon graduation?! There are so many things I would love to figure out as soon as possible! So maybe, just maybe I will! In the meantime, I have a horrible virus/cold... Ive had a fever for a week straight.. dizzy, light-headed, nauseated, ears and head stopped up, half runny/half stopped up nose... you get the picture-basically I'm miserable. And I know I should've gone to the doctor days ago but after working in the ER where people ABUSE it for a Dr.'s office.. I just cant bring myself to waste a doctor's time when I know exactly how to fight the symptoms. My only concern is that I am past a week at this point, with this dreadful illness of mine and I can't seem to shake it. Oh well.. in time I suppose. If not gone by Wednesday, I'll go to the Doctor. Valentine's Day has come and passed! It was oh so amazing! I spent the day with my dear Matt.. he surprised me by taking me to the Medieval Times restaurant! So cool! We sat at long tables in an arena where "wenches"-yes, thats what they are called-served us a heaping, delicious mountain of food: half a chicken (yes, HALF of a chicken), a rib that the meat just slid off the bone, soup (yummy), garlic bread, HALF a huge potato, and a oh-so-delightful piece of apple pie for dessert! MMMM! We watched an hour and a half long LIVE horse and jousting show/competition! Our Green Knight (reserved to our section) even ALMOST won the whole competition for the Princess's heart! He turned out to be the villain! Overall... fantastic VDAY! Hope all of yours was amazing as well!
Hope this post finds you all amazing and filled with happines :)

What is it that we dream of?

What is it that you long for in life? True love, good fortune, occupational success? What desire for our life gives us that romantic bit of edge that makes us want to wake up in the morning? For me, its love. I dream of a life filled with love! Of course this is unrealistic, but I (like so many little girls) want that "fairytale romance" that others are in awe of and envy. I want to wake up to random sweet messages left on my pillow and coming home to someone who just wants to hold me by a fire and thinks Im just the most beautiful person he's ever seen. Kind hearted and gentle, loving and strong. I want to feel so consumed by love for someone that I find it hard to breathe at times. I want to dance together at random times and in the simplest of places. I want to be able to look in the mirror and see the most blessed person because I am in love with the most amazing and feel that breath-taking feeling when he walks across my path most days.....
pondering thoughts on a long friday...

New Year, New Start.... but with a lot of great memories!!!

I look at the past year and I think "Amazing! Ive come such a long way!!" What has occured the past year you might ask!? Anything and everything! What was I doing for New Years this time last year? Shaina and I were in Dahlonega, bringing in the new year with her old friends and my new ones! We had an amazing night and oddly enough VOWED to spend the new year as single ladies, conquering our biggest fears and having the time of our lives. Well.. I had the time of my life and have conquered a few fears... and accomplished a small portion of my "bucket list" as well. The beginning of the year brought new possibilities and experiences: from skydiving to starting my first semester of clinicals for Nursing, it started my year out as one that Id never forget. I became friends with people I never imagined I would... experienced two great loves, and somehow came out on top in the job department! Longly-separated family members are now home, my grandparents are still in decent health...well, still around ;), and my friend base expanded far beyond my expectations! I've learned so much about myself over the past year: that sometimes you have to worry about yourself first, that it is OH SO important to figure out what I want for myself before trying to give any of myself to another person, and to turn to GOD for strength instead of trying to do everything on my own! He has blessed me with SO much the past year and I have so much to be thankful for! God is certainly a loving God and a forgiving one at that. I wont go without saying that I havent had to learn some lessons the hard way the past year... but who doesnt! Anything worth learning is never supposed to easy! So thank you Lord for all of the amazingly positive experiences and people Ive come across the past year and even the mistakes Ive made because theyve taught me more life lessons than I couldve imagined!!!
Ill close this with some of my most noted blessings over the past year:
-getting through my first year of clinicals
-getting the opportunity to skydive
-getting a new job at Tanner that I love
-Paul, Cole, and Jake (my mom's brother and his sons) moving home just in time for Christmas
-watching my sister and Tim progress in their soon-to-be marriage (they just bought a new house, yay!!!)
-getting to meet and love new people that have touched and changed for the good

so blessed this holiday

Hello all!! I honestly could not begin to tell you how blessed I feel this holiday season. My family was together and we were graced with the presence of my mom's youngest brother and his two boys that live in Texas. They actually moved back here the week before Christmas and have moved in with my parents. While life at my parents is a bit chaotic with another adult and two teenage boys living there, along with three small (and very loud dogs)... we are still so blessed that they have moved home to be near family. My uncle is in the military and they have had the opportunity to see and experience many different things in their many moves, it is good to know that they will now be in a stable environment during their toughest teenage years. Life couldnt be better as far as Im concerned. Santa was very good to me this year at christmas! I received a new Flat screen HD TV, a new photography camera, and the Wii Sport!! I consider myself very fortunate and could not thank God enough for the blessings He has bestowed on me this season. But more importantly, seeing how blessed I am reminds of the real meaning for Christmas. I'm so thankful for a loving, forgiving, and astonishing God that sent His beautiful Son to die for my sins... to die for all the things that I do everyday that hurt and disappoint Him. But He loves me no matter what I do. And that is the best Christmas blessing of all: To celebrate the birth of Jesus and the sacrifice of God to send His Son for us!!! Thank you Lord for everything youve given me this Holiday season!!

In the Christmas spirit

I love Christmas time. I am already counting down the days until Christmas... especially Christmas at my house (well... my parents'). They seriously go all out and it looks like a beautiful, classy, christmas house that Santa would live in... and no I dont mean the toy factory! We have a full size Christmas tree in every room except the bathrooms and kitchen (because they wont fit in those rooms). Each tree has a theme and definitely matches the room decor and colors. Go figure with my interior decorator mother who is also a perfectionist. Our house smells of cinnamon and cider starting from about mid-November to end of January and I love it! She never has the will to take them down right at New Years or put them up right at Christmas because it takes too much work to transform the house for her not to enjoy it! So Christmas is really about 2 1/2 months long at my house. I dont know how to explain it but theres nothing more comforting to me than being at home for the holidays. This year will be a little more sentimental. It will be the last Christmas the its the four of us! Of course Tim will open presents with us Christmas morning but its the last time that Courtney and I will open up Christmas gifts from Santa together at my parents. Its seems like only yesterday that we opened gifts up in our old small den when she got a Miss America set and I got a bowling set for Christmas (along with a ton of other amazing gifts that my parents always bless us with). How funny that those gifts match our personalities so well! Santa was always really good about that... about making sure that we got gifts that we wanted and that were unique to us. My parents really made the holidays special for us in more ways than one and this Christmas.. I just feel especially blessed. God is good!

Speedy Gonzales!

Everything seems to move at such a fast pace these days! The semester has FLOWN by!! It has been almost a month since Halloween and that seems like just a week ago. I swear school is killing me. Its not so much that its hard its just that they give us so much busy work and at the end of the semester?? Why not give us busy work at the beginning? In the next 3 weeks I have a paper, a group project, a Psycho Ed presentation, 4 journals, spanish oral final, a regular Spanish test, an online test and an ATI test for Nursing, 2 evaluations, and finals... why in the world is all of this necessary?! And the bad thing is... I'm so ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas break that I have no motivation to stay on top of all of this stuff! I suppose I have no choice. Have you ever wondered what exactly you will use from your college days/classes? And for those of you who have already graduated.. what in heck have you used? Of course classes that are in your major are important but even some of those or the work they give you just doesnt seem relevant to what I'd do or use in the "grown up" world! As I realize that I am ever so close to graduating... I am just a year short of having to be an adult with real responsibilities and a full time job! That is SO scary! All I have known my entire life is school and part time work. So how big of a difference will that be!? A huge one!! One that I am anxious, nervous, excited, and frustrated about! Somebody please give me a rewind button and transport myself back to freshmen year!? I dont know if Im ready for this!!!

In the mean time... here are some recent pics of the past few weeks!

Hanging out at Justin, Ron, Sam, and Glenn's

Later that night at the mansion!

Halloween! Baseball player, Poison Ivy, French Maid, and Flapper!

Me and Ang! Yes, Poison Ivy turned out pretty good and was a big hit!

Happy Halloween!

Yes it has been a while since I posted! Over a month!! Ok.. a little update is in order! Over halfway done with the semester! And so glad! This is still my absolute favorite time of the year and Im loving the cold weather! Yay for Halloween today! We are all going out and Ive decided to be the temptuous POISON IVY from Batman Returns! Angie and I dyed a body suit, shorts, and pantyhose a deep green color and hold glued glitter and ivy leaves all over the outfit. We are stenciling ivy leaves all over my arms, legs, neck, and face. I got a bright auburn colored wig and added green streaks in it and glued in ivy leaves.

This is a pic of what we were sort of going for.. but I promise it wont be skanky!!!

I will definitely post pics of the nights events as they go on. Angie and Tyler are SUPPOSED to be Peter Pan and Tinkerbell so we will see if it actually happens!!! I love Halloween. Its just all in good clean fun!!! Friends get to hang out and enjoy the festivities and you get to see just HOW creative your friends really are!!! Hope everyone has an AMAZING halloween!!!!