Slow blogging month

It has (quite obviously) been a slow blogging month for me. It is not for a lack of things going on, that's for sure. I have been busy with school and packing and wedding stuff. It has been a busy month to say the least. We'll start with the first weekend of the month:

I dragged my fiancé back to where we will be living in a few months. It's "home"...sort of. It's where both of us spent the majority of our time growing up. It's where our parents and most of our friends live. But, it's not really "home" right now. Boone is our home, for now. (That changes in a few and short 3 weeks.) Anyway, Friday was an all around good day. I spent time with my wonderful fiancé. We went to see the "new" Narnia movie since it was at the $1.50 theatre. It was good -- quite a few laughs from it. I really enjoyed it. We also went for dinner at Chipotle, one of Jon's favorites restaurants. I quite like it too. For that weekend, I also found myself working for a whole 24-hour period. The day wasn't too bad of a shift...until about 11am. We didn't run a single call throughout the first 4 hours. I got myself a little nap in there (which was of great benefit later that day). Then, everything broke loose. There were structure fires and cardiac arrests everywhere. I found myself working a structure fire at a nursing home. We have jokingly talked about how this particular one should be burnt to the ground. Well, a portion of it tried. Something in the laundry room (presumably the dryer) caught on fire. Thankfully someone had the forethought to build the laundry room as a separate building from the main nursing home. However, as this building has a U-shape to it, they did put the laundry room in the middle of the U. The day was super-windy and we were worried that the wind might make the fire jump to the main structure. It didn't and the fire department got it under control rather quickly. The rest of my day was pretty much steady straight through until 6am the next morning. That was pretty much the extent of that weekend.

70 days and counting....

70 days from today, a mere 10 weeks, I will be a married woman! It is kinda scary (in a good way) to think about it.......but so incredibly exciting! We continue to make progress in planning for the big event. The hope is that 2 weeks from now, there will be beautiful weather in the Raleigh area (praying for a fabulous day) so that I can get my bridal portraits taken (really excited about that!). We are still making progress of solidifying our housing once we're married. I have now officially been released from my lease obligations here in Boone as of May 1. That is exceptionally exciting -- at the most, we'll be paying 2 rents at a time if Jon is unable to find someone to sublease. (Even then, he is paid up through the end of his lease -- so it's already taken care of.)

School is moving along. 6 weeks from today, I will be a college graduate which, let me tell you, is a wonderful feeling at this point. Less than 5 weeks of class remaining plus a few days of exams are all that stand between me and finishing undergrad! Mixed in there will be two relatively involved papers, a few exams, lots of busy work (that's all thanks to one class) and MOVING (I hate moving...lots). However,

I have made significant progress on one of the papers, of which the first draft is not due for nearly 2 weeks (highly unusual for me). The "funny" part of this that I used the paper to procrastinate other homework and studying. Ironic, isn't it?

Spring break, part 2

Spring break flew by! It's strange to think that this is really going to be the last spring break I have as a student. If I do, in fact, go into teaching, I will continue to have them...just from the employee side. So, here's how the rest of the week went...

Monday, I worked a 24-hour shift. It was exceptionally busy but the night was wonderful. We slept all night but we're not too sure if it was as a result of a truly slow night or if it was due to the pagers not activating (there were LOTS of issues with them all day). Either way, I was happy to take it.

Tuesday, after I got cleaned up from my shift, Jon and I spent the morning and first bit of the afternoon looking at apartments. We settled on one that we loved, filled out an application and are currently waiting to hear if we get it. The one that's on "hold" for us at the moment, the current tenants move out on April 30 and with a 5-day turnaround from the apartment complex between tenants, it will work out well with our desired move-in date of May 8 or 9. I also had dress fitting number 1. It went pretty well and it should be finished the last week of March. I'm excited!

Wednesday, I had to head off to work for meetings and training. It was fun and informative (helped me catch up a bit on what I've been missing out on over the last few months that I've been in school).

Spring break, part 1

I am on day 3 of spring break -- and I've gotten a fair amount of stuff done during these last few days.

Jon and I came home on Thursday after his last class of the day. His last class wasn't held so we were able to get home at a decent hour, which was quite nice. Friday began early for me as I got up for an appointment with my eye doctor that never happened. I went there only to find out that they had been trying to call me for the last week to say the doctors would be out of town and needed to reschedule. The only problem was that they were calling the non-existent house phone at my parents' house. My appointment has subsequently been rescheduled to this coming Thursday. After my visit to the eye doctor's office, I had an appointment to get my hair cut with Janelle, someone who I have known for years but has never cut my hair. It's been several months (5, to be exact) since I got it cut. I also wanted to discuss the possibility of her doing my hair for the wedding. She said she'd love to -- and she liked what I had thought of, so we're on the same page for what's going to happen, I think. :-)

Following my new hair cut (really, just a trim), I had lunch with Dad. It's something we used to do often when I lived in Raleigh but we haven't done it in a while. After lunch, I was off to collect Jon so we could head off for the first 2 hours of our premarital counseling with the pastor who will be marrying us. The session went well and we have one more this coming Friday, hopefully getting it all finished up then. Before work on Friday evening, I went with Jon back to his house to hang out for a few hours and have dinner with him and his parents. Work was mostly uneventful, which was nice. Only 1 call for the 12 hours. I have a feeling I'll be paying for that with my shift tomorrow.

Random thoughts strung together

I have a bunch of random thoughts that were running through my head last night during my insomnia run -- and some are still running through my mind today. So, I'll share them with you in a bulleted fashion. (Warning: one thought is not guaranteed to flow nicely into the next. You have been forewarned.)

• When Jon and I get married, we have planned to take pictures prior to the ceremony so that we are not away from the reception for hours while we get all those necessary family pictures. This being the case, there will be a "reveal" that takes place between him and I. This will be his first chance to see me all dressed up in my gown, with my hair done and my face all made up. It will also be my first chance to see my soon-to-be husband that day -- and I couldn't get that out of my mind as I was trying to sleep last night. I was trying to imagine what his face is going to look like when he sees me. I was trying to imagine a scenario that I didn't cry in. I was trying to imagine myself with the gown and my hair/make up all done...in other words, imagine myself as a bride. I've seen the dress on me. I think I know how I want my hair. But, I haven't seen all that together. I'm rather excited to be able to see it all together. So, that was something I was thinking about (and if something was going to run through my mind and not let me sleep, I'm okay with that being it).

Looking ahead...

I have yet to complete my second degree (but my first bachelor's degree); however, I am looking ahead to determine what it is that I am going to do with my life from work, to the possibility of continuing school, to getting married (that's already determined)...to whatever else may come. I'm a planner. And, because of that, I like to know what's coming up. No surprises.

Yesterday, I filled out my application for graduate school. Just about anyone who has heard I am looking at continuing my education at graduate school has made the remark that they think I'm crazy. I have been in school (college level) every semester since the spring of 2005. Honestly, yes, I'm tired of school. However, I know me and I know that if I quit school now, I may never go back. So, the next logical question is: what are you going to grad. school for?

That's easy. Teaching. The program I have chosen, after a lot of deliberation and searching, is a Masters of Art in Teaching with my specialization area being in elementary education. My associate's degree is in EMS and my bachelor's degree will be in psychology. That knowledge being known, the logical question that follows is: why not pursue a degree furthering one of those degrees?

The countdown has begun!

As I look over the past several weeks, I am so amazed at what has happened and how things have progressed forward. As a point of reference, it was 7 weeks ago yesterday that Jon asked me to marry him...and 15 weeks from tomorrow, I will be walking down the aisle to meet my groom and become his wife. It continually amazes me how much I (with lots of help) have been able to accomplish over the previous weeks. The planning process for the wedding is essentially done and now it's just the details that need to be worked on (and those are coming along well -- it's just a matter of actually deciding what Jon and I like). Amazingly, most of this period has been relatively stress-free. It hasn't been without bumps but it has gone so much more smoothly than I thought it ever could. I am so thankful for that.

Wedding update!

So, this past weekend, Jon and I went home over our 3-day weekend (that's really a 4-day weekend because neither of us have classes on Friday!) to get some things done for the wedding that is fast approaching. We got a ton done!

• We have a venue for the ceremony and reception (that was solidified on the day we came back to school for the first week of classes -- the date, however, was not solidified until early in the week of classes).
• We have a caterer and I'm super-excited about the one we have! I've been at events that she has catered before and she is fantastic!
• We have a photographer -- I don't know her personally but she is Mom's coworker's sister. Jon and I have looked at her portfolio and we liked what we saw. We have an engagement session scheduled over spring break and I'll likely do a bridal session between graduation and the wedding.
• We have a pastor -- we emailed him early last week as to see if he was available and willing to marry us. He said he had to check and would get back to us. We talked to him while we were home this past weekend and he agreed to do it. :)
• We have a pianist -- a good friend of ours is going to play during the ceremony. We're still working on a playlist for her but we have her coming to play.
• We have a "florist" and designer -- one of my great friends who I have worked extensively with on decorating and designing (though she is so much better than I am) has agreed to help with the flowers and decorations and all of that jazz for the ceremony and reception. She's going to fiddle around with some things for the next 3 weeks or so and then show me what she's come up with and I'll figure out what I like or don't like and we'll go from there with bouquets.

Welcome back to Boone!

Jon and I made the trip to head back to Boone yesterday in preparation for the new semester to begin on Monday. We were greeted by some not-so-lovely white stuff falling from the sky, already on the ground and trying desperately to stick to the roads (it eventually did but it allowed us to get each of us home and make a grocery run). I told Jon I might not be so upset over more snow had we not had the 8+ inches back home over break. In some ways (mostly through that and the ice event the first day we were back), I feel like I didn't even leave Boone. The positive side is that it's pretty. :)

Outside the front door of my apartment.

When I went to bed last night, that pavement
was black and there wasn't any snow on the cars.

So, classes are scheduled to start on Monday. I'm not sure if that will happen or not. The next 6 days have snow on the forecast and, apparently, the first few days of this (i.e.: through Tuesday) are supposed to bring us a big storm with lots of snow fall. I know the AppalCart is not running today (though I haven't been outside to look at the road conditions). If AppalCart doesn't run, the campus doesn't open for classes because so many (most off-campus) students rely on AppalCart to get them to and from campus. I told Dad before we left that I'm not sure if we should even head up to Boone because I'm not sure how much class-ification will be occurring this week. He, being the "voice of reason", said that it's good to be up there just to be prepared.