goodbye 2008 ...

new years always makes me a little sad.  it's 1 hr until 2009.  i'm about to go to sleep.  since i worked today and didn't get home until 9:30 and i have to work tomorrow, i'm headed to the bed!  it was a long day.  brandon is ringing in the new year in chicago with mike.  lucky!  anyway, i figured i'd list a couple big things that happened in our lives during 2008 ...

1. celebrated our first year of marriage together, and now 1/2 way to # 2!  
2. got new jobs, a new house, and moved to ohio
3. had our first christmas away from home
4. my little brother graduated from high school
5. brandon's brother proposed to his girlfriend of >5 years (congrats guys!)

it's been more of a quiet year than 2007 ... in which i ... graduated nursing school, planned a wedding, passed my board exam, got married, moved away from home, got my first real job as a nurse, got my second real job as a nurse since i hated the first one, got a dog, bought a house ... whew!  

who knows what 2009 will hold ... :)

happy new year!

so...haven't blogged in a while...

well i've sort of been on a blogging break.  i didn't really mean to, but the past week has been pretty busy.  busy but wonderful.

• brandon and i had a great 2nd christmas together as a married couple.  we didn't get to go home (to nc and sc) for the holidays, but we ended up being okay :)  after an amazing christmas eve service at river's crossing (500 people! and brandon did a great job), i made a special meal for just the 2 of us on christmas eve consisting of some of each of our favorite holiday dishes.  i also made b's favorite, steak.  after dinner, we watched my favorite christmas film, how the grinch stole christmas (old and new version).  it was a lovely evening!
• christmas morning brandon and i cooked breakfast together, opened gifts, called his family, and video-chatted with mine.  later that day we went to see marley and me, and then had dinner at paul and farrah's.  although we missed our families, we had a wonderful christmas here in ohio.
• i worked friday and saturday, and rivers crossing didn't have church sunday, so we slept in.  my parents, andrew, and gini came sunday.  i was soo excited to see them!  we had such a good time.  we went out to eat at pf changs (yum!), shopped a little, hung out with some friends and extended family, slept in, ate wonderful food (southern cornbread dressing!!), played games, and just relaxed with family.  WONDERFUL 3 days =)
• a few of my favorite gifts - a very cool giraffe-print purse and sephora urban decay eyeshadow from b, a chi hairdryer from my parents, a funky orange shirt from brandon's dad, all 3 anne of green gables dvds from brummy and popi.  we also got a garmin from brandon's dad - such a cool surprise!  brandon and i were very blessed.
• now back to reality.  working wednesday, thursday, friday days.  back to the long hours, but also to see my precious kiddos at the hospital.

i hope you all had as good of a christmas as we did.  i am so blessed beyond measure.

so happy :)

my parents, my brother, and his girlfriend gini are here in ohio with us for a few days.  i'm so happy!  sometimes you just miss your family.  i'm so glad they're here. 

merry christmas!

take time to remember what it's all about ...

it's Christmas eve!

this is me 2 years ago at our Christmas eve service in north carolina.  i love Christmas eve.  almost as much as Christmas day.  my favorite thing has always been the  Christmas eve service at church.  growing up i have so many wonderful memories of packing up with our entire extended family and going to the church.  more than once we've come out of the church to snow falling.  my favorite part is singing silent night with only the candle lights flickering.  it makes me cry every time.

last year was my first Christmas being married and not at a Christmas eve service with my family.  brandon and i went to our church in sc, crossroads, and although a little sad, it was still great.  this year we're in ohio, and brandon will be leading the music for our Christmas eve service tonight.  i have no doubt it will be wonderful and i'm sure silent night will still make me cry.  we're also singing andrew peterson's labor of love which will be amazing.  

i hope you all have a great Christmas eve.  i'm sure we will.  take time to slow down and spend time with those you love remembering how the Savior of the universe came into this world so long ago for you and me.  Merry Christmas!

my day

- when i left my house this morning for work at 6am is was 3 degrees.  nope, no typo here, 3 freaking degrees.

- i had the cutest little 2 and 3-year-old boys today as my patients.  one on his second transplant.  one was from hawaii and one from puerto rico.  i would have taken them both home in a heartbeat.  so darn cute!

- gave IVIG, pentamidine, and busulfan with kinetics.  all = super busy day.  i really do love this job though.

- got home to 3 christmas packages on my doorstep!  yay :)

- tomorrow i plan to run to target, the grocery store, and possibly go ice skating with my hubby :)

happy monday!

okay, now this is just crazy...!!

1 word ... COLD

think again

an innocent face?  think again.  i just walked into the kitchen to find maya's entire head inside her bag of dog food feasting away.  don't be fooled by the face.

pray for this baby

pray for our friends in charlotte nc, wade and ferris joye.  their baby girl liana needs your prayers right now.  read about it here.

bmt day -0

today was transplant day for my patient.  he was my brother's age.  18.  

his older brother was his donor.  his cells were pheresed this morning, and a couple hours later they were delivered to the patient's room.  liquid gold.  we infused them over 5 hrs and stayed in the room taking vitals the whole time.  other than some minor blood pressure issues, it went great.

it was really touching to see the older brother (the donor) come in and hug my patient before the transplant.  to hear them tell each other they love each other.  to be in the room with the family taking pictures, and to witness hope being given to a family.  

the patient made a comment to the person delivering the cells - "don't drop them, you've literally got my life in your hands".  literally, this is his chance at living a life to grow up, go to school, get married, have kids.  it was really amazing to be part of something like that.  amazing.

i seriously love this job!

updates

well if i have any readers left after this blogging break, thanks for hanging around for me.  life has been a bit hectic to say the least, and although i have a lot to blog about, i haven't been able to find the time.  some updates....

• i'm back to days until the 3rd week in january, so i've been having lots of early mornings.  unlike my awesome mother-in-law, i'm not a huge fan of waking up at 5am.  she actually goes to bed and looks forward to waking up!  i wish i was like that.  i'm good once i've got some breakfast and some coffee in me.  :)
• tomorrow i get to infuse cells (aka - a bone marrow transplant!).  i'm really excited about it, so i'm sure i'll have something to blog about tomorrow night.  it will be my first time actually getting to give the transplant.
• this past week we got to go to 2 holiday parties.  last sunday night was the church volunteer christmas party at the gardner's, this past friday night was a christmas party at the taylors.  both were tons of fun, beautiful, catered with lots of yummy food and drinks, and filled with christmas spirit (which if you know me, you know i love christmas!)
• last night was our last catalyst group meeting.  it's been great hanging out and getting to know friends this way.
• today we had church.  this is my first month volunteering in the kid's area.  i've been assigned the 3-yr-olds, and although they are super cute and sweet, it has served as a pretty effective form of birth control ;)  rc3 does a great job ministering to kids.  i am very impressed.
• we had lunch with the taylors and the gardners, shopped a little, and then hung out at paul and farrah's watching christmas movies with the kids while brandon helped paul install their new microwave.  and the best part is, they gave us their old one (which is stainless and super nice).  we haven't had a microwave since we moved here (5 months!)  it can get old heating up leftovers for 30 min. in the oven :)
• this week should be busy too.  working days mon/tues/wed, christmas shopping thursday, band party friday night, and hopefully doing christmasy things and relaxing saturday.
• i'm reading a good book right now called adam by ted dekker.  it's a mystery/suspense book by a christian author that kept me up until 1 am last night.  so good!
• i am loving all the christmas decorations.  our tree is beautiful and real i might add, and it seem like lots of people decorate their houses up here.  
• we're not going to be able to go home (nc/sc) for christmas this year.  it will be the first time.  with my work schedule and brandon's commitments to the church, we just can't work it out.  and we really tried hard.  i'm trying to think of ways to make it special this year with each other since we won't be with our families.  any ideas?  say a prayer for us :)
• i got a little notice yesterday in the mail that cathy got me a subscription to the new food network magazine for christmas!  i can't wait to get it in the mail.  thanks cathy!  you're the best!

have a lovely week everyone!  take time to slow down amidst the craziness and remember why we celebrate anyway.

let it snow ... :)

this has been on the ground outside our house for the past 4 days.  just today it was gone.  in the south snow is gone the next day.  not here.  everyone has been telling me this was nothing.  just a tiny snow.  ha.  it is beautiful though.  the one with brandon in it is him scraping my car before i had to drive in it to go to work the other night.  such a sweet husband he is :)

oh christmas tree...

christmas favorites

we put up our tree today :)

i took some pictures, but haven't uploaded them yet.  i'll do that tomorrow.

i love love love Christmas.  seriously.  

i know every verse to every christmas song known to man.  

i know all the verses to away in a manger and we three kings.

so i saw this on cathy's blog today and thought i'd copy it :)

my favorite christmas...

movie - how the grinch stole christmas (old and new version)

oldie tv show - rudolf and frosty (i couldn't choose!)

cd - christmas is jesus, brian duncan (from 1995!)

song - i'm dreaming of a white christmas, bing crosby version

tradition, then - me and my immediate/extended family would all hang out on christmas eve at oma and opa's and then drive to church at 9pm for the christmas eve service

tradition, now - picking out a real tree, putting it up, and decorating it with my husband

childhood memory - sitting at the top of the steps with my little brother in our pjs on christmas morning until my mom and dad got up and told us we could come down

toy ever received - my life-sized baby doll rebekah who people always thought was real when i would take her to the grocery store :)

sweets - my molasses ginger cookies and oma's white wedding cookies (i don't know the real name to these, but they are so good!)

decoration - only colored lights and childhood/sentimental ornaments on the christmas tree.  it's got to be whimsy and childlike for me; no formal/fancy white lights or matchy/ornate decorations for this girl!

IT'S OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS SEASON...:)

i'm cold