Updates

It has been a really long time since I did my last post! It is time for a little update on what's been happening with us over the past few months. Starting with .....Thanksgiving, we had lunch with Jody's extended family in Nocona,TX. I had to work the night before and the night of, so I was a little pooped. It was nice, however, to be able to do it all.

Then a few weeks later was my birthday. We went to Cheesecake Factory with my mom, brother and Jody's parents. I really love the Cheesecake Factory!
A few weeks later we went down to Austin/San Marcos, TX for my cousin Justin's graduation. He graduated from Texas State and then after it his parents had a party for him at the country club. They always know how to have fun, so we had a great time!After that came Christmas. We went to Abilene, TX for a few days to be with my extended family. My mom has 3 sisters and 2 brothers and all the families, except 1 (In South Carolina) were able to be there together. It was the first time in a really long time! This year I had several days off around Christmas, so it was nice to be able to enjoy the holidays.
New Year's was a pretty low key one this year. We went to eat at Rockfish with my mom and then over to our friends Chris and Jessi Mitchell's house.

Right after New Year's was the Cotton Bowl. We are die hard Tech fans, so we had to be there. Other than the losing part we had a really great time! We got there early to do some tailgating and it almost felt like college again!
That weekend my cousin Timothy and his new bride Ali got married in Bryan,TX. We drove down for the day and were able to spend time with family. The wedding was beautiful and we are so happy for them!That next Monday my mom, sister and I all went to see Celine Dion. She is amazing! We got tickets a full year in advance and it was something my mom has been wanting to do for years! I am so glad we were able to take her and Celine was better than I even imagined. It was well worth the wait!

A few weeks later on January 12th my uncle tragically passed away. So, since I happen to have the end of that week off and my mom works for Southwest Airlines (making for easy travel), we went to South Carolina for the funeral. We flew into Columbia, but we actually stayed in Camden. My memaw, papaw and mom and I all made the trek together. There were many more people from Texas that wanted to go, but it was just too last minute. My aunt and her family were there most of the week and stayed a little longer to help out. He was in law enforcement, so it was a really neat experience to see them present the flag and everything.The last few weekends have been fun because I haven't had to work and we were able to do some fun things around here. We went to our Sunday school chili cook off/ game night, the Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and we went to Chris and Jessi's for the Super Bowl.So, that brings us to this past weekend I worked all weekend and Jody went to Arkansas. He was helping our friend Blake and his dad at their tree farm. Now we are back to the daily grind (or nightly for me), I am back to work tonight. I will try not to wait so long between posts next time!

State Fair of Texas

Yesterday morning we decided since it was the last day of the fair we would use Jody's parents free tickets. Everything opened at 10am so we thought we would be there when it all opened so we could get back to see the end of the Cowboy game. That was such a great decision. As we were leaving there were so many people it was crazy!! The traffic to get in looked like a nightmare and if we would have had to sit in that we would have just turned around and gone home! We just had to eat our favs... fried cheesecake and corn dogs. We usually add in a turkey leg and a few more fried things, but it was just too early. I love anything fried, but I think they are taking things to an extreme. I mean fried PB&J, fried latte, fried green beans and the list goes on and on. I will admit I have liked every fried thing I have tried so far. Now, for the Cowboy game.....give me a break. They don't even look like they are even trying. Ugh, we rushed home for that!

Salt Lake City

I just got back on Friday from another conference! This one was much different than the one a few weeks ago. Don't get me wrong I love, love, love learning about my specialty, but this trip was just handled much different. Salt Lake is beautiful and it wasn't too cold yet! In the distance you could see snow on the mountains, but in the city the temperature was just right. On this trip as opposed to the last there were more important people from the hospital with us and the conference held a little over 5,000 people! We are a magnet hospital which is excellence in nursing. It is a standard of nursing and all the people at the conference either work for a magnet hospital or are trying to achieve that status. It was a bit of a learning curve for me because the topics were a little deep. It was a lot of the business side of things like recruitment, money and legal issues. I couldn't believe how well we were treated! They put us up in the nicest hotel and took us to the nicest places to eat. We stayed at the Grand America Hotel and it was absolutely beautiful! I would definitely go back. All in all it was a fun trip!

Our group from Cook Children's!


My good friend Lana and I at dinner!

2nd Anniversary

September 30th was our 2nd wedding anniversary! (I know I am a little behind) Last year we went to San Francisco for our 1st, and since we just got back from California we decided to just go to a nice dinner. We went to Del Frisco's in Ft. Worth. It was so wonderful!! The service was so great and we usually don't do gourmet fufu food, but the food was great too! We actually ate so much that I thought I was going to be sick! Overall, a wonderful anniversary! I am married to such a wonderful man and I can't believe we have already been married for 2 years!!

TRAVEL, TRAVEL, TRAVEL

So, the past few months have been so busy with so many destinations! Jody and I love to travel, so I'm not complaining! Starting in June we took a trip with Jody's family to Pitkin,Colorado. It is a little town outside Gunnison. We stayed in this cute little cabin in the mountains and enjoyed a week of adventure there. We did a little white water rafting, fishing and a little four wheeling. I have to say the boys spent most of the time on the four wheelers since I am a big chicken.In August my mom, my sister and I all went to Las Vegas for a few days. We stayed at the MGM Grand and it was a great place to stay. While we were there we enjoyed the show Mystere by Cirque du Soleil and it was amazing. I have to say my feet haven't hurt that bad in a long time!! We had a great time and didn't lose too much money! (I actually came back $10 up!)Labor day weekend Jody and I went to Pasadena, CA to see his brother Jon who goes to seminary out there. Pasadena is a cool town outside of LA and it seemed to be great place to stay outside of all the madness. We like the more low key side of things, so we loved it! It was so fun seeing all there is to see in Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. I do have to say we weren't that impressed with Hollywood. It was just a street! It was so glamorous in our minds, but not as cool once you get there. While we were there we also went to a LA Dodgers game and enjoyed some dodger dogs!After the LA trip I went on a girls trip to the river that was almost ruined by hurricane IKE. It actually turned out to be the best time to go because there was no one on the river and we seemed to have the place to ourselves. It also didn't even rain on us!! Meanwhile Jody was dove hunting with his buddies.

My most recent adventure was to Albuquerque, NM for a nursing conference. I am a member of APHON (Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses) and the conference was for its members nationally. It was so cool to see the upcoming treatments for cancer and all the new technology.
Somehow between trips we seem to fit in a little work! We are also continuing to work on our house. That seems to be a never ending project. One day when we finally get everything the way we like it, it will be time to move!