Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Kid's say the darndest things

I have gotten to enjoy some funny conversations with my niece and nephew about the baby in my belly. I just love their responses....

A conversation with my niece Gianna on Sunday (she is 2)


Me: (pointing to belly) Gianna what is
in here?
Gianna: your belly
Me: Yeah but there is something in there! It's your new cousin Miya!
Gianna: (with pure excitement in her voice and a shriek) Can we open it!!!
Me: (laughing) No not yet we have to wait a few months for her to come out.
Gianna: (with disappointment and resignation in her voice) Oh,OK.





Conversation with Isaiah (he's 3) the week before we found out what we were having


Me: Isaiah, do you know what's in my
belly?
Isaiah: A baby!
Me: Yup. Do you think the baby is
going to be a boy like you, or a
girl like Naomi?
Isaiah: Um, a Girl!
Me: Oh yeah?
Isaiah: Yup. Aunt Laura do you think
the baby is going to be... a
monkey? or a yak?
Me: laughing to hard to get any words
out.

I was able to notify little buddy a few weeks later that his guess what absolutely correct we are having a girl. I also reassured him we were not having a monkey or a yak, much to his disappointment.

You gotta love the innocence of children!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Seriously good baking...

Sweets have been on my mind and in my belly a lot lately....what can I say. Sometimes I blame Miya for it. Lew laughs at me because it will be like 10 at night and I will come across a picture of really good food (usually dessert) and all the sudden I'm "STARVING".


Either way I have been trying out new recipes and came across this blog and it's my new fav:


These little gems to the left are an example.
Pumpkin Cookies with Butterscotch
Soooooo delicious! I made them twice and they are so easy. They also aren't like typical cookies, they are fluffy and cakey and oh so good.

Either way check her blog out. I am not a skilled baker but most of her recipes are easy and simple to make and her descriptions of food are fun to read. Just a word of caution: they may make you feel "STARVING" too. :)

Friday, November 14, 2008

You live and learn

So I learned a valuable lesson last night, one that I'm sure will have me laughing, and cautious for a good while now. It is this:

If the parking spot you got while in Bethesda seems too good to be true, that's because it is. More than likely you will come back to find your car not where you left it.
Did you catch all of that? I hope so! Yes folks maybe it's common sense (I'm sure it is) but us "country folks" don't visit the city much and parking in a Giant parking lot in the heart of Bethesda right across from the restaurant we were going to seemed perfectly harmless! My friend Renee and I were like oh look at this it's perfect, right across the street from the restaurant, and free! We just assumed all the parking garages were for all the "other folks" who missed out on the deal we got. Yes when we parked we were both certain we were getting the "best deal". Oh how wrong I was. After a perfectly wonderful birthday dinner for my dear dear friend Kelly, we walk out of the restaurant watching our friends make the trek to their parking garage while we just walk right across the street to our "deal" of a spot. Only, wait, where's my car? Definitely not there. Then in the most peculiar not obvious spot we see a sign "Towing enforced for any cars left on this premises. By leaving your car here to are agreeing to a lien with G&G towing and agree to pay the towing fees" Lovely. Thank God for Renee. She kept me calm and by God's grace I was able to laugh. I called the number and tried to stay cool calm and collected. The guy said he would bring the car back to me (how nice) for 148$ wow (not so nice).

So Renee and I waited, and while we waited we saw tow trucks taking cars and bringing cars back, apparently this parking lot is a trap for innocents like us, the signs are not clear enough and someone is making a killing off of it! We saw many a people pleading with tow truck drivers probably trying to cut a deal. So here we were outside in the heart of bethesda at 11:00pm, Renee with a poor hubby at home trying to get the baby to go to sleep, and me a pregnant woman with a bad sinus infection. We spent most of the time laughing and talking about everything from labor to shoes (somehow women have a way of doing this) and finally after almost an hour and a half we see my car, poor baby strapped on the back of the tow truck. At this point I wasn't in the mood to cut any deals with the towtruck driver, I just wanted to get home and get out of the cold. But I did rub my belly and cough a lot while waiting for him to charge my credit card. I figured a little sympathy wouldn't hurt. I think he felt bad, but not bad enough to give me a deal. Oh well, I tried.

Either way, a lesson was learned. Things could have been far worse! At least we were in a good neighborhood. The rain had stopped, I had good company, and I got my car back. Thanks eener, for making what could have been a nightmare so much fun. Next time hopefully we can catch up over a cup of coffee in a warm cafe rather than waiting for a tow truck outside :)

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

It's a....

What a fun day. Going to the ultrasound was comparable to going into Christmas morning as a child. The only big difference is you really don't care what it is, you just want a healthy baby. My close friends and family will know how we counted down to this day. We were so eager to see our little poppy and find out what God had blessed us with. So I have to confess just to make sure our little one decided to cooperate we stopped for a coke slurpee on the way, hoping the caffeine and sugar would discourage our little poppy from napping during the ultrasound. We knew poppy would go for this because for pretty much the whole first trimester these were on the top of my craving list when the morning sickness was bad.

Whelp, the slurpee indeed did the trick. When the tech started looking she was like "oh my do you see it wiggling!" Yes our dear child had it's bum in the air and it's feet almost over it's head. It was waving it's arms and smacking it's lips....must have really enjoyed that coke slurpee with Mom. What an amazing experience. To see this little child moving and it's perfect heart beating is really so miraculous. The tech at our drs. office is wonderful. She walked us through everything, we got to see the perfect four chambers of the heart, the spine from beginning and end, the lobes of the brain, the fingers and toes. It was just amazing. We were praying that she would be able to see everything she needed clearly and that is just what happened. Over and over again she would say "look at this, look how clear this is." What a kind God to show us our healthy baby thus far. Then came the moment of truth...Would our little one cooperate? Oh yeah no problem there. Legs were spread wide open the whole time so not only did our tech get one good look, but she got 4 good looks. Just in case we had her check several times just to be sure. And just as she thought the first time her fourth look confirmed it... we are having a sweet baby girl. Yes it was a shock. In fact Lew and I laughed so hard, she probably thought we were crazy. I explained not only did almost everybody guess a boy, but all the old wives tales pointed to it being a boy. It took a while to sink in, and is still sinking in as I type this. I kept checking with Lew, worried he was disappointed. I knew of his dreams to bring home our little boy in a cubs outfit, and to teach him about manlihood and baseball...but he assured me that he wasn't disappointed and that..."there's always next time." Haha I am nowhere near ready to talk about that "next time" but yes my dear you are right, there is still hope for a boy down the road. Plus I assured him our little girl can still learn about baseball and I will even let him dress her in a cubs outfit when we leave the hospital :) I think that made him smile. Nonetheless, both of us are thrilled to hear our baby is healthy! In terms of names, yes we have them. We have decided Lord willing to call her:
Miya Noelle Lewis

Miya is pronounced mee-ya. We opted for that instead of the traditional mia because we liked the meaning. It is Japanese in origin and means peaceful as a temple. Haha maybe it's wishful thinking on my part :)

Here are some pictures of her:



Her sweet little face



These pictures of the facial skeleton always kind of scare me...just to be honest. It's just kind of funny to see all those facial bones. You can also catch her little beating heart in this picture.


Here she is in all her glory. Apparently those 3 white lines mean girl. I didn't ask any questions I just assume the tech knows what she's doing. You can see her little leg at the top. She sat in the perfect position the whole time.


And here she is from the outside. She is growing, some days I feel huge, I can usually tell when I am having a growth spurt because I will get really bad ligament pain. Thankfully I have a long waist so so far there has been lots of room for things to be moved around. Also note the pink shirt, what an appropriate choice for ultrasound day.


On that note I want to end with part of Psalm 139. I think more than anything Lew and I left totally in awe of God's creating a child in me from the 2 of us. What a miracle.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

Psalm 139:13-18


Thanks for your prayers for us! Please keep praying for a health rest of the pregnancy. Specifically if you could pray that God would help me to fight sickness, I have been sick this past week with a stomach virus and soon after a nasty cold. My low immune system this pregnancy has made me a magnet for the sickies!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

No place like home.

I was reading through our old blog and thanks to my excessive blogging in the past I have lots of fun memories recorded from our first year of marriage, it was sweet to look through and remember the pre-pregnant days :) Either way it feels like home here at blogger.

So what's new?


Our poppy seed is now a mango, 6.5 inches to be exact. Sorry for an old picture I took this one at almost 2 weeks ago when I was 17 weeks, and am now 19 weeks. Poppy has made "it's" presence known these days. I started to feel the movement a few weeks ago but each week it feels a whole lot more of a kick than a flutter. Our poor poppy has had to endure a nasty stomach virus this past week. But don't feel bad for our baby, I was assured that poppy was getting any and all of the nutrients and electrolytes I was able to keep down and would be just fine. Whew that was a relief. Our child has also mastered the task of back flips in the womb, well I guess I can't prove that's what it is doing, but seriously it wouldn't surprise me. And it seems to like to practice most at night and early in the morning. It also has found a nice cozy spot to hang out on my right round ligament. That's right I am imagining our baby laying on the hammock of my ligament sipping a drink and relaxing. Meanwhile I am hobbling around applying hot compressess and trying to apply counterpressure to encourage poppy to find a new spot to relax in my womb. More than anything this pregnancy has made me realize in a whole new way that my body is not my own, and what a gift for God to allow me to house this precious child for these 9 months. It is really a joy, all the aches and pains can't compare to the blessing of carrying this little one. I just find so much humor in the process. Nothing can really prepare you for what it's like to carry a child.

In similar news today will more than likely be the last day we refer to our child as "poppy" (or "offspring", as Lew likes to refer to it) but Lord willing tomorrow our child will have a name. I know amazingly Lew and I have had our names picked out since 10 weeks and are just waiting to find out boy or girl. So we'll see it just depends on if our little one cooperates. But if you ask Lew he will tell you that his "SON" isn't going to be shy. Yeah Lew is pretty much already sure that it's a boy, but only the ultrasound will tell. So more news on that tomorrow.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

It's Been a while

As y'all can tell, this blog doesn't get updated too often. I've added on the right-hand toolbar a rss feed to our other blogs. I am starting to update my blog more often, it's kind of touch and go with the busyness of life. It's mostly theological musings and what not. On the rare occasion my blog has a personal update, but that stuff is usually on Laura's blog. You know where to find us, and who knows, maybe this will blog start to get more regular postings with summaries of what is happening at the other blogs, if those blogs start to gain more content.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Lew's new blog

It's not exactly new, it just hasn't been announced yet.

http://bloodbought.wordpress.com/

I've been hoping to get into a routine of regularly writing in it, but it appears that might never happen. Be on the lookout for my 2nd online project which I am hoping to regularly start adding more content to as well!

Monday, January 07, 2008

Wait...

For those of you who haven't updated our new blog yet, or who are still using this blog to get to our new blog (Mom Ellis;) )

Here is a link to the latest post on :

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Fresh Start

Ahhh I love starting a new year!  Even though Lew tells me that you can get a "fresh start" year round there is just something about entering a new year that feels so fresh to me ;) 

Either way we have decided that this new start will mean...a new blog.

Blogger has been good to us thus far, but we have found iweb to be a lot easier in terms of sorting pictures and updating etc... so you can now visit us at (you can cut and paste it into your browser if it doesn't link you there):



I have already posted and added our pictures from the holiday...
Happy New Year!



Thursday, December 20, 2007

"What's going on Saturday?"

A hilarious conversation around the Ellis table last Sunday. As you will notice communication in our family specifically about family events can be a little cloudy! ;) It keeps things interesting!

Me: So Mom what time are we all supposed to come over on Saturday?
Mom: What's going on on Saturday?
Me: Ummm, we are all coming over to celebrate Christmas since Hannah's family and Lew and I won't be here for Christmas!
Mom: Ohhh, I didn't know that! When did we decide that.
Me: (I'm cracking up at this point) Mom we decided this weeks ago, that's one of the reasons why Hannah is driving up from North Carolina this weekend!
Now Sam and Priscila join in:
Sam
: Wait whats going on on Saturday?
Priscila: Honey were coming here to celebrate Christmas while Laura and Lew and Hannah and Enoch are here.
Sam: We are? Did you know about that honey? I didn't know that!
Priscila: Yes love I have known about this for a while!
Now Dad joins in the conversation...
Dad:
So wait a second what's going on Saturday?
(everyone starts chuckling)
Me:
Dad everyone is coming over Saturday to celebrate Christmas because some of us won't be here on Christmas.
Dad: I didn't know that either!
Priscila: (talking to my parents) So are you still going to do something on the 25th even though everyone is coming Saturday?
Dad: Whats the 25th!!??
Everyone laughing hysterically at this point...
Multiple people:
DAD ITS CHRISTMAS!!!

My family is so funny! I love you guys ;) Can't wait to celebrate with you on Saturday (It is Saturday right? ;) )

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Pinned!

I had my pinning ceremony last night, in nursing school its a traditional ceremony where you are given a pin to wear on your uniform as well as exhorted to "be the best nurse you can be" ;)  It was a nice ceremony, nothing fancy, but memorable.  I think the reason why it's taking time to "hit" me that I'm done is because I'm done with this journey, but there are so many more to come!  The boards, my critical care course at the hospital, precepting under a nurse on the PICU where I will be working, and taking care of my first patients on my own (yikes!).  Fortunately these all come one at a time, so I won't be overwhelmed.  But I guess I am just realizing finishing this program is really just a start to a whole new realm of learning.  Maybe not quite as structured, but as a nurse you are ALWAYS learning!

Here are some pictures from the ceremony:

Mom and Dad ;)

Rissa and Grandma
Filing into the ceremony
Getting "pinned" by professor Schuler
Finally pinned ;)

::Nightingale Pledge::
"I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to faithfully practice my profession of nursing.  I will do all in my power to make and maintain the highest standards and practices of my profession.

I will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping in the practice of my calling.  I will assist the physician in his work and will devote myself to the welfare of my patients, my family, and my community. 

I will endeavor to fulfill my rights and privileges as a good citizen and take my share of responsibility in promoting the health and welfare of the community.

I will constantly endeavor to increase my knowledge and skills in nursing and to use them wisely. 

I will zealously seek to nurse those who are ill wherever they may be and whenever they are in need.

I will be active in assisting others in safeguarding and promoting the health and happiness of mankind."
 .

    author unknown

I made this pledge last night, as I read through it I actually got a little teary eyed (lets call it exhaustion ;) )  Either way while reading it I just couldn't help but see how God's enduring faithfulness has brought me to this point.  Without his mercy I wouldn't be here today, a graduated nurse.  And by his grace I can keep this pledge.  My prayer is that I will never become an apathetic careless nurse, there are already too many of those in our world.  And mainly that I will never lose a heart of compassion;  that I will never stop treating my patients as if they were my brother, sister, child, or parent...  Thanks to so many of you for your encouragement and prayers!  I am so thankful to my friends and family for walking through this journey with me!  

A little "shout out" to my friend Maureen (who I know is reading this ;) )for getting the award for Academic excellence.  Maureen I am so proud of you, all your hard work has paid off!  I am thankful to have spent these last two years with you, we have to keep in touch!!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Where did the year go?!


Us a year ago...



Us now...








As I am typing this it's crazy to think that one year ago we became husband and wife!  This year has been so full, God has been blessing us and teaching us so much, I just can't believe that the year is gone.  We haven't quite celebrated yet just because we wanted to wait until after school had finished so we could really enjoy our time together.  So we plan to go away for two nights over New Years.  We did eat our cake though, and amazingly it was SO good.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was great.  

To My Love:  That God would bless me with a godly, humble, servant like you is beyond my comprehension, but please know how blessed I am to be your wife.  You have taught me so much through your faith and perseverance, I can't wait to see what the years hold for us!!


On another note,  I had my final today, and yes that means I'm done! I'm still in shock. It could be the fact that I only got 3 hours of sleep last night, or the fact that my life has been so dedicated to this nursing program for the last two years that its hard to imagine it really being over!  I'm sure it will hit me...eventually, maybe when I go to take my board exam.  But until then, I will just try to enjoy some undivided quality time with my husband.  He's the one who sacrificed the most this year for me to be able to study hard, I don't know how I could have done it without him!

I hope to post some more pictures soon.   Rissa is finally back from Budapest and we got to celebrate her 19th birthday yesterday.  My graduation ceremony is also tomorrow, so I will post some pictures of that, until then....

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Supply & Demand

This morning I woke up feeling weary.  More aware of weakness rather than grace, more aware of my "to-do's" than of all that God has done for me, and more aware of what I lack at the moment, than of the reality that my greatest need has been met through Christ.  

Though I despise the weariness, I love the result of the weariness --> Dependence!  I knew this morning that I needed to kneel before the cross and lay down my burdens.  I knew that I needed to find my sufficiency in Christ and not in myself.  What a sweet reminder!

I found this precious "gem" or truth in Beside Still Waters by Charles Spurgeon:

We have great demands, but Christ has great supplies.  Between here and heaven, we may have greater wants than we have yet known.  But all along the journey, every resting place is ready; provisions are laid up, good cheer is stored and NOTHING has been overlooked.  The commissary of the Eternal is absolutely perfect.

Do you sometimes feel so thirsty for grace that you could drink the Jordan dry?  More than a river could hold is given to you, so drink abundantly, for Christ has prepared a bottomless sea of grace to fill you with all the fullness of God.   DO NOT BE FRUGAL. Do not doubt your Savior.  Do not limit the Holy One of Israel.  Be great in your experience of His-all-sufficiency .  Be great in your praises of His bounty, and in heaven you will pour great treasures of gratitude at His feet.

What great mercy He has shown us!  

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Yummy Pecan Goodness...


The other night we were having some friends over for dessert...originally I had big ideas of what kinds of dessert I was going to make.  I had a ton of new recipes I had been holding onto and waiting for the right time to break them out.  As I went through some of the recipes I wanted to try I decided I wasn't up for all the work they entailed, so I fell back on something I had made before that required LITTLE effort and LITTLE ingredients ;) And they are so very yummy, cant beat that!

They are Hungarian Cookie Bars.  Don't know what about them makes them Hungarian, but I made them this past summer when we were sending my sweet little sister off to study abroad in Hungary.  Either way the recipe is so easy, and they are delicious.  You can add whatever kind of nuts you want as a topping.  I have tried both walnuts and pecans, and I liked the pecans best.  They taste like little pecan pies, they have a dense crust like layer, a ooey gooey middle, and a nice caramel like crust on top with nuts....yum!

Hungarian Cookie Bars

1 3/4 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C butter/margarine softened
1 teas. vanilla
1 1/4 C all purpose flour
2 Large eggs
1 C chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325ºF. Grease a 9" square baking pan; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together 3/4 cup of the brown sugar and the margarine. Add vanilla and flour; mix well. Pat this mixture into the bottom of the baking pan.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs until foamy. Add the remaining 1 cup brown sugar; mix well. Pour into the pan over the first mixture. Sprinkle the nuts evenly over the top.
Bake at 325ºF for 30 to 40 minutes, or until center is no longer jiggly. Cool completely before slicing. Slice into 2-1/2"x1-1/2" bars.





Thursday, December 06, 2007

All I want for Christmas are ....trash ties?



trashychristmas.jpg

Yes ladies (and men?)  these little things would be the perfect stocking stuffer for any lady in your family...or you could always just buy them for yourselves ;)  Either way these things are great, you've got to check them out!  I have an unusually thick head of hair and most hair "contraptions" don't work at all or give me a headache....I have been waiting for something like this to come on the market...and alas here it is!  Make sure you look at the gallery on the website to see how cool they look. 

Monday, December 03, 2007

Meat & Taters...

DSC_0008.jpg
Lew is definitely a "meat and potatoes" kind of guy.  Though he puts up with my "frilly" concoctions I like to try to bless him with the kind of meals that he truly enjoys!  Even though he's easy to please it's cute to see him get so excited over a meat and taters dish ;)

So, here is something I made this week for the first time and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't have kiddos but I imagine that they would be quite fond of these little little meat muffins;)  They tasted so yummy and really weren't very hard to make.  I served it with brown sugar glazed carrots and mashed potatoes. 


Diner Meat Loaf Muffins
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup ketchup, divided
1 1/2 pounds ground beef, extra lean (raw)
1 cup finely crushed fat-free saltine crackers (about 20)
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, chopped carrot, dried oregano, and minced garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Cool.

Combine onion mixture, 1/2 cup ketchup, and the remaining ingredients except cooking spray in a large bowl.

Spoon the meat mixture into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Top each with 2 teaspoons ketchup. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160°. Let stand for 5 minutes. 


To make the brown sugar glazed carrots...

Boil about 2 cups of baby carrots in salted water for about 8-10 minutes (until tender-crisp).  Then drain and set aside.  In same pot add 1 tbs butter, 1 tbs brown sugar, and a dash of salt.  Stir until mixed in and butter is melted.  Add carrots and stir for two minutes until glazed.


Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Family


So we were actually able to get a shot of all our family (all that were in MD that is...we missed hannah's fam, and Rissa!)

Friday, November 23, 2007

Favorite time of year...

This time of year is definitely a special time of year for us.  The time frame between Thanksgiving and New Years was always so special growing up.  My parents had many traditions and we made so many fun memories growing up. But this time of year is special for another reason too, almost one year ago I became Mrs. Lewis.  The last couple days as we were celebrating Thanksgiving it was so much fun to think back to last year at this time.  I remember it so well, the craziness of school, planning a wedding, and getting ready for the Holidays.  I think I have partly forgotten the craziness, and mainly remember the butterflies and the excitement of becoming Lew's wife.  It's hard to believe that here we are, almost at our one year anniversary, now making some of our own traditions and memories.  And this time of year wouldn't be complete without school craziness, but this week has been a nice little break, I got a full week off!
Yesterday we spent the day at my parents and had a lot of fun eating lots of good food, and spending time with all our family (except Hannah's family, and Rissa...we missed you all!!)  Here are a few cute pictures from yesterday ( I couldn't take too many because my camera battery was dying and I forgot to charge the battery, but I did get lots of Gianna though!)
The order of the pictures are kind of random, I couldn't get blogger to sort them...


Mommy and Gianna

Sitting on the stool... (she loved this little stool, she kept climbing up on it!)







"Meema" and Gianna

Playing..


Playing Frisbee with Dad




Then today we followed in one of my family's traditions and went to Pine Valley Farms to cut down our first tree...well my Dad really did the cutting, but picking it out was a family effort.   Once we found the right one we loaded it up and brought it home.  What seemed like an "easy" task wasn't quite as easy as we thought, but it was fun none-the-less.  I had to laugh as we were trying to get it to stand up straight for the tenth time...my parents made it look so easy all those years ;)  We finally got it up and added the lights and decorations, then spent a little while trying to clean the needles off of the floor.  But let me just say this, the work was worth it.  Having the tree up made our little place feel so cozy, and the smell is amazing!  Then after the tree was up, and some yummy left overs were eaten, we started a new little tradition... a Christmas movie marathon.  Right now I'm watching home alone 2, with my sleepy husband passed out beside me (he was out after the 2nd one!)
Here are a few captured moments in the process of putting up the tree...

Finally got it inside...now where to put it?


Lew trying to snip away some of the branches so it will fit in the stand



Finally got it standing and the decorations are on...





Monday, November 19, 2007

Life as it is...

So there hasn't been much time for updating at our place. Between school being super busy and a plethora of interviews my time has been consumed, my sweet Lew has been compensating well by doing a lot around the house and being my "cheerleader" when I need it ;)

I do have one big update now though... I got a job!  I decided to work at University of MD Medical Center in the Pediatric ICU.  It was a funny process because originally I wasn't sure about anything...where I wanted to work, or what specialty I wanted...but after I interviewed and got to talk to the nurse manager I just had complete clarity that the PICU at UMMC was exactly where God wanted me to be.  So Lew and I are very excited about it.  I will start in February.  

I only have 2 more days of class, where did the time go!  I have two more days and 2 more exams then I'm done.  Then the month of January will be time to relax and prepare for the boards (although from what I hear...those 2 don't really go together!) But I will attempt to relax some when I can.

I have a few Thanksgiving recipes I wanted to post this week...those will be coming soon!

Monday, November 12, 2007

To My Long Lost Friend

Dear Warm Weather,

I haven't seen you around in a while. To be honest, I miss you. In October we had this talk, and I thoughts things were going to change. You gave me the impression that you were going to be around for a while. This year was supposed to be different, I know that every year you leave to make way for fall and winter, but I like you better, I've always liked you better.

Please don't mistake my glances into the closet at sweaters as a secret desire for you to away. Just because I find fleece comfortable does not mean that I wanted you to go away.

I thought we had something special going, I like being warm and you like creating high temperatures. Some people may try to put you down and accuse you of something called, "global warming," but you don't have to listen to them. They're all just haters. Warm weather, everyone loves you. You're so bright people have to wear shades around you!

Warm weather, there might have been times I sat inside in the AC, but please know that I never took you for granted. Where you ever you go warm weather, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you. You may leave me for a season, but I will be here, enduring the cold, waiting for you to come back.

Love,
Lew