one of those mornings

well i had quite the morning.  let me explain.

i live about 25 miles from downtown cincinnati (where cincinnati children's is located).  from 7 - 9 am traffic is horrible; not an exaggeration.  to make it to work by 8 this week, i need to leave my house by 7.  guess what time i woke up?  6:53 am.  on my 2nd day of work, yeah.  boy, i am going to make a good impression ... lol.

i jump out of the bed like a mad woman, run to the bathroom and do my hair, throw some clothes on, run downstairs and grab coffee and a pop-tart (that brandon made me), and run out the door.  by 7:05.

me on the way to work = rushing in 30 mile per hour traffic for 45 minutes while trying to put on my make-up.  so much fun.  miraculously, i find a place to park, sign in, and make it there in my seat at exactly 8:00, about 30 seconds before the first speaker began.  whew.  

it was just one of those days.  i never claimed to be perfect :)

engaged

in a park by a lake 2 years ago today, the amazing man who is now my husband got down on one knee and proposed ... :)

i have never regretted saying yes.  i love you b.

it's sunday afternoon

it was a great weekend.  brandon and i so enjoyed having my parents from north carolina for a couple of days.  it made me so happy to just relax and spend time with them :)

church this morning was nothing short of wonderful.  from brandon and the band to paul's message to several people accepting christ, it was just so great.  i love river's crossing.

our afternoon has consisted of rest, a nap for brandon, homemade apple pie and coffee for me.  a fall breeze blowing through the front door.  just perfect. 

i may have sold my first item on craig's list today!  a vera bradley purse i've had forever that is way too small for all my stuff i like to tote around with me.  my purse is pretty heavy.

i start work tomorrow.  for the first two weeks, i will just be in a classroom from 8 - 5 learning about the hospital's policies, filling out paperwork, etc.  pretty boring stuff actually, but not hard for something i get paid for.  i'm not sure how things will go after that, but i'm assuming it will involve some sort of extensive orientation on the unit.  i'm looking forward to getting to the point where i feel comfortable there and know people.  that will take a couple of months i'm sure.

this post was random and probably boring.  sorry, i just don't have much else to say this afternoon, lol.  enjoy your sunday!

1 thing making me sad ... :(

if you know me at all, you know 1 reason i'm not happy tonight ... bama beat my dogs down.

oh well.  life does indeed go on :)

3 things making me happy today ... :)

• usc lost to oregon state
• florida lost to ole miss
• clemson lost to maryland

pleeease georgia beat bama tonight ... then i'll be super happy!

good days

thursday night - mom and dad arrived, dinner with parents, chill and hang out time.

friday - breakfast at breakfast club, ikea, coffee on the front porch, dinner with extended family at paul and farrah's.  happy anniversary brummy and popi!  

today - coffee, lazy morning breakfast, applefest in downtown lebanon, georgia game tonight!

it's been a good weekend so far  :)

my parents ...

... are on their way!  =)

random thoughts and updates

first of all, happy birthday dad!  i could not ask for a better father.  you are the gold standard.  love you!

my parents are coming tomorrow!  can you say EXCITED!  i cannot wait to see them and spend time hanging out.  it will be great =)

brandon and i made a trip to costco today with paul and farrah.  they have been so great to us since the move, and we love hanging out with them.  i like costco too.

i got a new coat at costco.  i'm really excited about it.  if you know me at all, even a little, you know i love coats.  dang, i live in ohio now, i need some warmer coats.  and some snow boots ...

i really need to do some cleaning.

my parents are bringing us my grandmother's piano!  i cannot wait to have this piece of my grandparents in my house, and plus, pianos are awesome!  thanks oma and opa - we love you both so much!

there are a lot of exclamation marks in this post, sorry, lol.

i got to talk to my cousin today, kristana.  it was great to catch up with her.  i really miss her.  she's due with her first baby, a girl, on november 22, so i'm hoping to be there for thanksgiving and around the time of the birth.  i already love that baby girl, and she's not even here yet!

my hubby's poison ivy (beware, it's a gross picture) is almost gone, as well as his eye infection.  i'm glad about that.  thank god for predisone and expensive antibiotic eye cream.  i guess it's worth it if it works.
 

i went scrub shopping with a new friend from church, kristina, who also works at children's.  we found some really cute things.  at my old job all i could wear was navy pants, white tops, and white shoes.  now i can wear whatever i want!  it's so exciting, really it is.  i spend half my time in scrubs.  it's a whole new world for me now - color!

i start work on monday - excitement + nervousness ...

i need to go cook some dinner.  and clean.  and do chores before my parents come - tomorrow!

happy wednesday :)

transcending differences

wounds that can't be seen are more painful than those that can be seen and cured by a doctor.  i learned that to humiliate another person is to make him suffer an unnecessarily cruel fate.  i learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.  i felt fear myself more times than i can remember, but i hid it behind a mask of boldness.  the brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers fear.  where people of goodwill get together and transcend their differences for the common good, peaceful and just solutions can be found, even for those problems that seem most intractable.

nelson mandela, civil rights leader and south africa's first freely chosen president

welcome fall

today is the first day of fall!!  i'm so excited.  this is a photo of fall in western north carolina...so beautiful.  i wish i was there ... although it's gorgeous here too.  i can honestly say for the first time that i know what my favorite season is...  

FALL

all the ways He is good

when brandon and i made the decision to move from greenville, sc to cincinnati, oh, we had no idea what was ahead.  it was a huge step of faith for us in more ways than one.  if you know us well, you know specifically what those questions and uncertainties were.  2 months later, God has been SO faithful.  He has provided for us in ways we never could have imagined, and keeps confirming to us both that we made the right decision to follow His lead in this move.  here are some of the ways:

• our home - a beautiful 1930s rental home in the heart of downtown lebanon.  it has a yard for our dog, is close to the church, brandon's work, and our friends, and costs less than our house payment in south carolina.
• our house in sc - fortunately our house sold (that we had only owned for 9 months) in less than 2 to a great family from our old church.  we only had to go 1 month with paying 2 house payments.  such a blessing!
• our town - lebanon is a small, cute, historic town.  it very much reminds me of home sans the mountains and my family.  i love it here.
• my job - cincinnati children's, the #3 best children's hospital in the nation, flew me up for an interview, and later offered me my dream job in their renowned bone marrow transplant unit.  that was God 100%.
• b's job - brandon only has to work 1 job now, and it's a job that he loves!  he comes home from church on sundays, and he is excited that he gets to do it all over again next week.
• family - my dad's brother paul and his wife farrah and their family live 5 minutes from us.  they have been such a support to us through this move, and they have made the move much easier on me to have them close by.
• our relationships - we have made some friends since moving here that we already consider our best.  we've hit it off with several couples that we really connect and enjoy spending time with.  we missed that community and type of relationship in greenville, and feel so blessed to have found it here.
• our church - our church family has been so welcoming to us.  i can't even name all the ways.  it also is a church that truly has a heart for the things of God and his people.  it is a serving church.
• our finances - we have been truly taken care of.  God has provided for all of our needs and then some in unexpected and miraculous ways.  i couldn't even begin to explain, but God has no doubt been faithful and good to brandon and i. 

i am so in love with the God we serve!  we are thankful beyond measure for how good He is.

go uga!

pulling for my bulldogs tonight :)

one bad thing about today...

to follow my previous post, there is one bad thing about today.  brandon has poison ivy (or poison oak i don't know), and he has it bad.  no really, it's bad.  all over, and he is swelling.  since we don't have a family doctor up here yet who can call us in some predisone (which i know is what he needs), and all the doctor's offices we've called have no appointments left, urgent care is our only option left until monday.  i hate the fact they will charge us $100 (i called), to tell us, "yep, you need some predisone, here's a little piece of paper telling you you can have some".  ughh!

that's my rant on that.

10 good things about today

1. it's friday - of course a wonderful thing.
2. brandon has the day off.
3. we made a trip to old navy and target this morning :)
4. i have a non-fat pumpkin spice latte in my hand from starbucks, after having some black coffee made for me by my hubby this morning
5. it's a beautiful, fall day and currently 66 degrees outside.  it feels amazing!
6. our first catalyst group is tonight at mike and annie's.  we're doing a relationship study, but i think tonight is just a social gathering before it starts next week.
7. i've got brandon around to help me do a few "projects" around the house.
8. this time next week, my parents will be here!!  i seriously cannot wait!  it's going to be so much fun to see them =)
9. it's fall.  i love fall.
10. we've got the entire weekend to look forward to.

happy friday!

my job description

doesn't this sound like an awesome place to work!?  i'll be there in less than 2 weeks! 

from children's website...

"Blood and Marrow Transplant:

BMT currently is a 19 bed unit with the eventual goal of a 24 bed unit.  the BMT encompasses a highly complex, specialized, high acuity care environment.  our patients range from infancy to young adult who have an underlying oncologic, immunologic, marrow failure or metabolic disorder requiring a bone marrow transplant.  we utilize a multidisciplinary approach to holistically care for our patients and their families as well as a variety of other specialized services (nephrology, cardiology, infectious disease, etc.).  nursing practice is essential in providing high quality care to a vulnerable immune compromised patient population.  BMT can offer you the opportunity to enhance your assessment skills, critical thinking skills, complex line management, infusion management (blood products, chemotherapy agents, monoclonal antibodies, antiviral agents, antifungal agents, stem cell infusions, etc.), nutritional support, pain control, palliative care ... the opportunities are endless.  we are cutting edge with our new treatments and therapies that we are offering our patients.  we are changing the outcome!"

what's your job description like?

a great read with a positive message

today is a good day!  i received all my magazines in the mail - real simple, martha stewart living, and my favorite - wnc magazine.  i love this magazine even more since moving away.  it is all about western north carolina (my home), and it gives me a little connection to what is going on there.  it also makes me a little homesick sometimes too :)  i get to see places i am familiar with, and read about the stories of the most beautiful place on earth.  this month's magazine had a wonderful story that i just had to share.

long story short, there is a man named bob white (previously homeless) living in west asheville (the roughest part of the city), who has made a wonderful contribution to his city.  to quote him, "instead of having my hand out, i was always trying to figure out how i could help".  he went to the housing authority with a vision of creating an organic community garden in west asheville.  a place where "there were a lot of gun fights, a lot of drug dealing, and a lot of crime in general".  today he has turned that area around with this garden called pisgah view.  it is run completely off volunteers from the local area, and gets put directly back in the community.  it is a place teaching kids about sustainable resources and eating healthy.  one little boy asked "what is a tomato plant", and when he was told he replied, "i though tomatoes grew in cans".  he was serious.  i think it is great to see people who don't expect hand outs or demand their government owes them something for nothing.  our communities need more people like bob white; people who want to do good things to add value to their community in sustainable ways.  

hooray wnc magazine for bringing us this great story!

saturday night live

okay now this is funny, hee hee :)

the weekend

friday morning my wonderful friend cherie once again helped me paint.  we tackled the kitchen, and it turned out great!  i'll post pictures later.  that afternoon, we went to the airport to pick up brandon's step-dad brian.  he had a layover on his way back from france, and so he got to come see our house.  it was great to see him.  below is a picture of the cincinnati airport.  

saturday was the big game - georgia vs. south carolina.  see, brandon is a sc fan, and i am a georgia fan.  we went over to paul's to watch the game (he played for georgia in the '90s).  it actually turned out to be a close game, but georgia won!  here's a before the game picture, then 

an after :)

sunday was a great morning at river's crossing.  the church has been est. for a year now, so we had a "re-launch" service if you will, which turned out a record attendance - 375!  we usually have about 275 on any given sunday.  here's a couple of pictures from the service.  i love our new church!  we have so many people who genuinely enjoy serving and love on others.  they have been so welcoming to us.

sunday afternoon we had some leftovers from hurricane ike come through.  no rain, just winds ranging from around 50-80 mph.  it was crazy.  we lost power for about 3 hours, which was a blessing that it was only that long.  our friends jos and ginger live 2 miles from us, and they still don't have power today.  most people downtown don't have power either.  the hospitals have all been running on generators, even up until today.  everything is okay though!  here are some pictures from around our area.

yesterday i had to go to children's for my employment screening (drug test, immunizations, blood work, fingerprinting ect).  i'm getting excited about starting in a little less than 2 weeks!  i'm going to have so much to learn, but it will be great i know!  i'll be working in the blood and bone marrow transplant unit, an inpatient unit specifically for children (6 months to 25 years old) with rare cancers and diseases undergoing bone marrow transplants.  i can't imagine doing anything but oncology, and i am so excited to get to work with these special kids!

we ended our weekend last night at travis and narnia's for ginger's birthday party.  it has been a full, but wonderful weekend :)

a blustery day

this was our day.  crazy winds, downed trees, no power.  movie night and dinner at paul and farrah's - b/c they had power :)  more to come later.  no worries though; all is well!

09/11/2001

7 years ago today our nation changed.  right about this time.  i was in the 9th grade in environmental science.  today we remember.

forming opinions

i watched a small portion of the mtv awards a couple of nights ago.  i was completely disgusted.  i could not believe what i was watching.  randy elrod summed it up perfectly.

last night, mtv continued its self-appointed role of spreading propaganda instead of its self-described role as a music television channel...it seems the latest mtv tactic is to import a crude and dense european host to tell us how to vote, when to have sex and how retarded our president seems to be...in today's world, we don't need liberal mtv, the legalistic church, a charismatic political candidate or anyone else for that fact telling us how to live our lives....  

read the whole thing here.

i know one thing; when i have kids, they will not watch mtv or anything like it.  i want them to form opinions based on sound judgment derived from biblical principles, not lame, crude, and completely biased remarks made by someone's pathetic attempt at "humor".

my town

a couple of photos of lebanon, ohio.

above is the breakfast club - best breakfast i have ever had!  come 

come visit!

mccain/palin in lebanon

as i write this, there are helicopters bussing right outside my window.  i live 3 minutes from downtown lebanon, and this morning, mccain and palin are holding a ralley there in front of a historic hotel - the golden lamb.  read about it here.  i think it's pretty cool :)

cincy museum and bodies exhibit

side note: what a beautiful day!  great morning service, lazy afternoon of books and coffee, 72 degrees and fall-like weather outside...:)

friday cherie and i went to the cincinnati museum center at union terminal.  we went to see "bodies - the exhibition"; which was only going to be in town for a couple more days.  i had heard about this and have been wanting to see it for a while, so i jumped at the chance to go.  it was so amazing!  she and i just kept talking about how seeing things like this only reinforce the fact that God alone could have created something as magnificently complex and beautiful as the human body.  we also got to see an omnimax film about it, which was so cool!  if you get a chance to go see this, you should.  we had a great time exploring the museum...i know, we're dorks :) 

the outside of the museum.  it used to be a train station.  it was huge!

one example of what we saw.  they were real bodies!  i wasn't allowed to take any pics, but this was from a news station's website locally that did a piece on it.

just inside the museum.

a view of the city.  it was a rainy day here in cincy, but we made it a fun one!

2nd game = 2nd win

bulldogs defeat central michigan 56/17.  

next week, carolina.  hopefully we'll keep it that way.

oh, and when i have a baby, i want one of these :)

maya howling

this is what happens when maya is in a hyper mood.  it's good friday night entertainment.  trust me.

perfect timing

i soo needed these words this morning!

the Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.  He awakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.  -isaiah 50:4

our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.   -1 thess. 1:5

be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  -1 thess. 5:16

may God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.  may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  the One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.  -1 thess. 5:23-24

my child, you believe Me for so little.  don't be so safe in the things you pray.  who are you trying to keep from looking foolish?  me or you?  -believing God by beth moore

closed!

we closed on our house (below) back in greenville yesterday, exactly 1 month from when we moved out of it.  thank you Jesus; You are ever faithful!

thank you to all of you praying for us.  we so appreciate it!

small town goodness

i grew up in a small town, waynesville, north carolina.  i still believe it's the most beautiful place on earth :)

i now live in another wonderful small town, lebanon, ohio.  it's about 20 miles north-east of cincinnati.  here is a perfect example.  the mail carriers here carry the mail from house to house.  in a little bag.  they don't drive the mail trucks; they walk.  i love it!

100 words

a fellow blogger has friends of his write little 100-word essays for his blog.  this one is awesome.  so, here at dinner time, these are thoughts worth thinking about.

100 words on food...

by david rice

everyone eats food.  it's what binds us together.

hatred can abound in politics, religion, class, country, but all is put aside when a green curry and nice brew hit the table.

food is pleasure.

eating is the most common, yet most purely hedonistic ritual that one can engage in.

food is leverage.

where food comes from matters.  with every dollar i spend on food, i am casting my vote for what kind of world i want to live in.

do i by food that respects the earth?

do i buy food that helps pay workers a fair wage?

labor day weekend

what a crazy, but fun, weekend.  let me summarize...

• friday some great new friends, tyler and cherie (pronounced sha ree), helped us paint our dining room.  it went from ugly and depressing rose-red, to bright and cheery orange.  it took a little getting used to, but we love it.  i'll post some pics too.
• friday night we went with jos (pronounced yas) and ginger to eat at susan and kevin's house, a couple from church.  great food and fellowship, and definitely lots of laughs.  if you know them, you understand.
• saturday we did house cleaning and yard work, and then went to a going-away party for a high school grad at church.  he'll be swimming for ohio state; good luck spencer!
• sunday was another great day at river's crossing.  brandon and the band rocked it, and despite paul's discomfort (he had his wisdom teeth out and has since developed dry sockets), he delivered a great message.  i really love our new church home.
• after church, tyler and cherie came over and helped us paint our front room.  it went from pukey green to cool blue/grey.  with the help of our great friends, we knocked it out in 2 hours!
• sunday night we had a labor day party cook-out at jos and ginger's with all the young-married/no-kids-yet couples in the church.  it is so great to have met so many people our age with the same interests and commitment to the Lord.  we had a great time.
• today we did a little house work and then went over to farrah's parent's property for a bonfire/cookout with a lot of people from church.  it was a great evening to spend outside grilling, playing games, and getting to know some people better.

it has been a long and busy weekend, but so great!  did you do anything fun this weekend?  happy labor day y'all!