Wednesday, October 29, 2014

future MRS thoughts

3 full days until the wedding day.
I feel like I've been so busy these last weeks with finishing school, finishing work, and now packing and moving, and always with the wedding planning, that I haven't had that much time to blog, or journal, or even self-reflect.
I'm sitting in my room surrounded by half packed boxes and feeling overwhelmed and thought, what a perfect time to stop for a blog break :). Haha. Moving in to Jill's condo I had mixed feelings. Mostly I felt so depressed being newly divorced, and just feeling like I had 2 years of my nose to the grindstone for nursing school. (although part of me was looking forward to living with my friend!) And moving out I feel so different. The only thing I won't miss is Jill's toaster, aka "toastdor the burninator", haha. But I have actually loved this season of being here. It has been healing, and strengthened me, and such a beautiful time of friendship and growth. I will miss it.
I am very excited to marry Doug.
2 years ago I never would have even believed I might be getting married again. I never dreamed that God could out-do what I thought to be the best at that time. But this feels, and IS, so different. I just feel a greater commitment, and a deeper intimacy that comes when you choose someone who loves God first as you do.
I also feel a little afraid. I know that we are 2 imperfect people coming together, and that we will hurt each other. I know that I will fail in how I respond to Doug at times. But I am looking forward to the joys ahead, the adventures, and the trials. I feel that we will be able to face them together and that God will lead us through. I pray that I will be a wife who respects her husband, and honors him, and seeks to put his needs first. That will be difficult as I have had to become self-sufficient over the last couple years, and I was proud that I was able to do that. And not anything weird like I'm not a whole person without a husband, but that I need to think first of him, and 'us' and not me first. God will have to help me.
I'm so thankful for this journey. Wow, God is so good. Thank you everyone who has prayed for me and been on this journey with me!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

one week to go!

another busy week.
I took my last exam and now I am a graduate nurse!!
Doug took me to Chili's for dessert to celebrate and we had a good time playing Plants vs. Zombies on their tabletop computer things.
So addicting!
Other happenings this week:
The cutest little girl in the world turned 1!!
Oh my gosh I'm so sad to be so far away while she grows up :(
I went up to my parents and made desserts for our dessert buffet.
my favorite ginger molasses cookies and Hershey's chocolate cake
my grandmother's hot milk sponge cake
while I was home I harvested the crop of gourds we planted for our wedding. A bumper crop it was not, but how cute are these little guys!?
Friday night Doug came with me to an unofficial pinning ceremony with my nursing cohort. I guess our school used to do a ceremony but they don't anymore. Lame! So we did our own. This girl has this awesome barn and we all went over and brought food and drinks and bought our own RN pins and pinned each other. It was fun.
They had remodeled the barn and had this wall made of old MI license plates, it was really cool
We're so proud! 26 out of our class of 40 came while we were there, it was pretty fun. Those 2 years flew by! Now to pass the NCLEX and get a job!

Monday, October 20, 2014

sweetest day

My sweetie brought me some treats for sweetest day.
Fun flowers and chocolate covered strawberries, mmmm
I had made this cauliflower alfredo from my favorite food blog girl.
I had that cauliflower in the fridge a couple weeks, I just never felt like making the recipe. But no grocery shopping in a couple weeks has made me desperate, and so I cooked it up. It was quick and easy. And honestly it was delicious the first time. But Doug didn't love it, and it wasn't quite as good the next day, so I'm not sure if I'll make it again.
Speaking of my favorite blog people, food blog girl had a baby and has been much less active, another favorite blogger has almost completely dropped off the face of the internet, and my very favorite home blog has decided to stop blogging after 7 years. I applaud their decision for their family, there were some definite sacrifices being made there, but I'll miss it. And just when I'm getting a home!! Alas. I do still have a few more blogs I really like, I hope they stay! :)
Sunday I spent most of the day studying
Jill cooked up a feast
it was glorious
she made chicken stir fry from scratch and chicken biriyani from a starter packet (I will definitely be buying that, it was so good!)
And today was my LAST exam!! (of my ADN program, I still have to do the BSN completion program) I ended up passing this last semester with an A and a B+. Woot.
Seems like this 2 years flew by. I remember my first day, and my first exam where I sobbed in the hall after it, and many many times saying 'no' to stuff so I could study. I can't believe there was a time where I thought I would go to nursing school and not tell anyone till my surprise graduation. Haha, I think that stemmed more from a fear of public failure, but I'm glad I let people in, I have needed this support and encouragement!
October 2014 future RNs:
Yay! We did it!

Friday, October 17, 2014

sweet dreams

I knew people at work were giving me a luncheon today, I still have a week and a half left, but today must have been a good day.
What I did not know was that they all chipped in for the cost of materials, and one of the ladies at work made me a quilt!
(thanks Jill's bed for modeling)
This lady has won awards for her quilts, and having made one quilt myself (and never another, SO time intensive) I could really appreciate how much work went into it. I was really touched they all did that for me!
And this sweet little tag
Doug and I had registered for our shower and also said if people wanted to contribute towards a mattress that would be great, and people really blessed us. We went mattress shopping this week and it will be delivered just in time, I'm looking forward to seeing how the quilt looks in our room. How fun!
This job has been such a great opportunity for me as I've been going through school and I'm going to miss it!
I would've liked to stay a bit longer, but for the 'nurse tech' position you have to be a student, and as of next monday I will be done! So it seemed a good stopping point to be right before the wedding. Now we can get married, honeymoon, and come back and study for my license exam, and then hopefully find a job somewhere!

Monday, October 13, 2014

house sitting

This weekend Doug was in AZ being the best man in his friend's wedding. I think this was his third time being someone's best man :)
Doug's roommate was also out of town, so I went over everyday to house and cat sit. I did some stuff around the house and then me and September watched Twilight.
she was super into it
We voted for Doug to do his hair like this for wedding hair:
On Sunday I went up to my parent's. It was one of those gorgeous Michigan fall days.
And then today it's gray and gloomy and I have a headache. Maybe I am one of those people who gets them from pressure changes and never put two and two together! Come back sun!

Thursday, October 9, 2014

busy week

Earlier last week my friend brought a new life into this world
sweet little Ezekiel. I went and saw him on day 2 and I was so impressed at how well my friend was an instant mom. She was picking him up with ease and he was feeding like a champ.
I was very busy last week studying.
study, study, study, and only got a C. Boo. One exam and a couple assignments and then I'm done! I cannot believe it went so fast.
I made this Chicken Biriyani:
It was really good. Doug came over for dinner one night and we ate it, and then the next night I brought some to Liz and we went to see Gone Girl. Our book club had read the book and it was pretty close to it. We both wondered what was up with the wife's strange voice, but it was pretty well made and almost as thought provoking as the book.
I also made these cookies, not too shabby and pretty healthy with mostly bananas, oats, and some chocolate
My handy man has been working on house stuff to prepare for 'our home'.
He installed this light with a motion sensor since his street is really dark and sometimes it's hard to find the key hole. It may have a couple bugs that we haven't figured out quite yet with sensitivity and a timing setting, but otherwise works!
He also has been working on my closet! Whoever had this closet before had jacked up the drywall and the inside walls, so it was either completely re-drywall, or cover it up with wallpaper. So cover we did! Doug did a great job and re-installed the bar and will re-install the shelf for me too. Yay! So pretty.
But he still needs me:
Today was a beautiful day and Mr. Becks and I went for a walk
He enjoyed trotting through the crunchy leaves
and now off to book club!