St. Patrick's Day Brewfest in Franklin

I have not been good at all keeping up with my blog!!! I guess this lack of attention could be blamed on work. I am really enjoying work, but it is hard for me to focus and think of something to write about on my blog when my brain doesn't work after 12-hour shifts. I am learning a lot very quickly. Chip and I haven't really done a whole lot of exciting stuff. We went to Jackson in January for my dad's birthday. I have been working some weekends and almost every Friday so that has made it difficult for us to do anything on the weekends.

I had a week off that overlapped with Chip's Spring Break so we were able to go to Franklin, TN to go to a Brewfest. That was a lot of fun and great to get away. We went last year and had a blast. The Brewfest is in Downtown Franklin the weekend before St. Patrick's Day and all of the stores are open and that is where the beer is served. Some of the beer is locally brewed and some is beer you could find in a specialty store, so it's not your normal, everyday beer. They give you a small pilsner glass and you can go in and try a beer, some stores let you try more than one beer. The stores were a lot more willing to do that this year than last year. We had some friends, Andrew & Cinda, go with us. They had a lot of fun, I think. Before we came back we went to breakfast at "The Pfunky Griddle." It is a restaurant in a small house that has a griddle at each table (kind of like Hibachi) where you can make your own pancakes, eggs, or French toast. It is great, but a little overpriced for having to cook your own food. When we came back I still had three days off which was really nice, then I worked three days in a row, which was exhausting. A great trip though!

This couple got into costume for the St. Patrick's Day celebration at Brewfest!

Our sample pilsner glasses and tasting site list.

Orientation Week at The Med

I started my first week of general & nursing orientation at The Med this week. Going to back to work has been quite an adjustment for me. I started orientation bright and early at 7:30 a.m. on Monday. It shouldn't be that different from when I was in school because I was also gone from 8-5 most days. I'm not sure if it is the amount of information they give you in orientation or that I have a "big girl job," but I am EXHAUSTED when I get home. I never thought I would be so excited to go to bed, but I am also excited to get up in the morning, which is a first for me. I can't remember ever being so excited to wake up and go to work. I was even excited to wake up when I was in nursing school, even on test days, but that was mostly anxiety!
I started the nursing part orientation today and will be in the classroom learning all about policies, procedures, medication administration, computer training, and everything else there is to know until Monday. I can't wait to get on the floor and start working with patients. I have really missed having contact with patients since nursing school is over. I have started flipping through my Maternal Health book because I need to get familiar with the fetal heart monitoring and all the maternal complications that can occur. Hopefully, I can find some time this week to do that.
Unfortunately, this weekend is going to be extremely busy for Chip and I. We are doing a class to join Second Pres., which goes all weekend long. It will be Friday evening, Saturday morning, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, and Monday evening. They are very serious about joining Second. It is only offered quarterly and with my future work schedule there is no guarantee I will be off on the weekends to attend. I am excited to learn more about the church and the Presbyterian denomination because I do not know a lot about the denomination even though we have been going there for almost two years. The class is called Inquirers and after the class you can choose whether or not you want to join the church. It will be great to learn more, but I'm not sure my brain can handle anymore new knowledge this week!

Just another day....

Once again I have been bad at blogging....It has been a little crazy around here. We have had a couple of snow days this month. Chip has been out two days because of snow. I took the NCLEX (nursing boards) last week and passed!!!! I am so excited to be done for a while with tests and studying. The anxiety of testing and studying is exhausting to me.

I start my job at the Med next Monday and I am very excited and nervous about my job. I will be working with a preceptor for a few weeks who will train me and teach me what I need to know. I hope I have a good preceptor.

Chip and I went to Jackson over the weekend to celebrate my dad's birthday and Clayton's birthday. It was fun to be with family and not have to worry about anything. We went to church with my parents on Sunday. They have just hired a new pastor who is great.

This week I am going to pick up around the house and get it in order before I start work next week. It has gotten a little crazy over the past year and there is some stuff that still needs to be done. I am hoping to start making a list of things we need to start saving for. There is so much we want to do as far as remodeling the house and travel, that we really need to start budgeting.

I have some picture of the snow, but they are on our new camera and the CD to download pictures onto the computer hasn't been installed yet. I will post those later. I don't need to let myself get so behind on blogging.

Seattle

The day after Christmas, Chip and I got on a plane and headed to Seattle to visit Thad, Lauren, Hayden, and Presley. This was the first time we had seen Thad, Lauren, and Hayden in exactly a year and the very first time to meet Presley Kate. She was so cute! We had a lot of fun. This was Chip's first trip to Seattle and my first trip to do touristy things.
Sunday- We got in about lunch time. After Hayden and Presley woke up from their naps we went to a pizza place called Pegasus on Alki Beach (which Hayden called Malachi beach). They had really good pizza and beer there. Chip and I were pretty exhausted so we called it an early night.

Alki Beach

Monday- We went to Pike's Place Market in downtown Seattle. They have lots of fresh fish, flowers, and other handmade items that are sold in the market. We also visited Nordstrom and a Columbia store where Chip did some shopping with his Christmas money. That evening Thad and his friend, Phil brewed a double IPA beer. According to Thad, if this beer turns out it will be the best beer ever. It will be six weeks until they know if it is good or not. Chip and I got to go to a homebrew store, which was really interesting since there isn't a lot of homebrewing around here. I think Chip was pretty intrigued by it.

Tuesday- We went to a pastry place called "Bakery Nouveau" in West Seattle near Thad and Lauren's house. Chip and I both had really good pastries there. He had a double chocolate pastry and I had a chocolate hazelnut pastry. They were both very good. In the afternoon, Thad and Chip went to some local breweries and sampled a lot of different beer. Lauren and I stayed at home with the kids while they napped. I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with Hayden.

Wednesday- We went to the Experience Music Project Museum in downtown Seattle. This was a lot of fun. There were music and science fiction exhibits. It was very cold this day so we tried to stay inside. Lauren and I went to the mall and did some shopping. I bought Chip a sweater, but that was all. Lauren had to return some things. We went out to dinner at Pyramid Brewing Co.

Thursday- Thad rented a van so we could all ride together and we drove around Seattle to see some of the very expensive houses and some parks.First, we went to Beth's Cafe, home of the 12-egg omelette. Chip and I split the 6-egg omelette. Maybe we can try the 12-egg omelette next time. We also went to the locks and Hayden liked to see the boats go from the bay to the ocean. We saw two boats go through. There were some very pretty views of the city and the houses were very nice and probably cost at least in the millions. We saw Kurt Cobain's house.

Kurt Cobain's house 

Friday- Thad and Lauren had planned a party for New Year's Eve with some of their friends. Chip and I went to Ikea. I was looking at kitchen stuff and couches to get some ideas for what we want to do in the house. Thad and Lauren's friends came over and we played a Newlywed game, charades, and catch phrase. Some of their friends stayed the night, so the next morning we all got up and had breakfast. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday- We were all pretty tired from New Year's Eve and staying up late. Hayden and Presley were up very early so Thad and Lauren put away their Christmas stuff and stayed around the house. Chip and I went to lunch in West Seattle.

Sunday- We got on a plane to head back to Memphis. We got stuck in Salt Lake City for two hours, but made it back about 11:30 p.m. We were pretty tired, but still on Seattle time (2 hours behind).

The trip was a lot of fun and it was great to see Thad, Lauren, Hayden, and Presley.

To Have a Life Again

Last weekend was a big weekend for us at the Holliday house. I graduated from nursing school and had my pinning ceremony. I took my last exam on Tuesday. I am very happy to be done, but unsure of what to do with myself. Each day, I do not think I have a lot to do and end up spending the whole day busy running errands or staying busy. It is so nice to have my evenings back and be able to cook dinner, watch TV, and just be with Chip. 

After completing my last exam Tuesday, I got an e-mail from The Med where I had applied and interviewed for a Labor & Delivery position. The nurse manager said they were going to offer me the job, but had to repost the position so I could reapply and then they could offer me the job. I am now waiting for them to repost so I can reapply. That is definitely an answer to prayer. God has worked it all out, and made me realize how in control he is. I have been applying for jobs since September with very few responses. The Med was the first place I interviewed and my dream job. I am very happy that it is going to work out, and I know that it will be a great mission field for me to encourage women here in Memphis. You would think that I would have learned to trust God a lot more by now since he did get me through the hardest year of my life, but I am only human and like to think I can do it all, but I can't and I will never be able to. I am so happy to start the next phase of my life with Chip (and not be in school anymore)!

The weekend Christmas was almost cancelled!

We came back from Jackson (my parents) on Saturday morning after Thanksgiving. On Sunday, we skipped church to try and get some stuff done around the house. We started with raking the leaves. Last year, it took two days and 18+ garbage bags. Since the tree fell on the house in January, we knew there would be a lot less leaves, but when we started raking I didn't think it would take any less time (maybe it was because of the full stomachs from Thanksgiving!) I asked Chip if he thought we could mow and bag the leaves and make it go faster---1 hour later, we were done!  We decided to move onto the Christmas decorations. We thought we would put some lights on the three arbor vitae trees (Chip calls them our Christmas trees) in the front yard. We went and bought more lights for outside and extension cords to plug each set of lights from each tree, then into the lit garland hanging over the porch. This was a brilliant idea. I had also bought more garland to wrap around the posts (last year we just put it across the top part of the porch). We got home and I had bought the wrong kind of garland (without lights) so I went back to Target to buy garland with lights. I came back home with the right garland while Chip was putting the lights on the trees. When I came home he said that the extension cords will not plug into the lights because they were 3-pronged outlets. I didn't mention that we have ONE outdoor outlet in the storage room in the carport. So, we decide the trees just weren't going to get lights and we started hanging the garland. I opened up the three boxes of garland and it is much thicker than what I bought last year. It would be too economical for Target to carry the same garland two years in a row.... Once the garland was up, it looked funny because some was thick and some was thin, so we pulled all the thick garland off and it was going back to Target. We decided we would do what we did last year because at this point we just wanted it to work! I believe Chip's words were "Christmas is cancelled this year!" ( I think he tells me that every year). The good thing was there were no fights, I think we felt so defeated by the lights that we couldn't argue about anything.

Yesterday, I took back all the garland and extension cords. I thought I would look at Lowe's and see what they had that could work for the lights on the trees because Chip really wanted lights on them. So, I bought two extension cords, a three-outlet adapter, and a two-to-three prong outlet adapter. I came back home and was going to get it all set up before Chip came home to surprise him. Everything worked except the two-three prong outlet adapter...it still wouldn't fit into the lights! Which was what would connect to the outlet in the storage room to give them electricity. But I was not giving up this time! I decided I would just use another extension cord and have two different extension cords in the one outlet in the storage room. It worked!!! We now have lights on all three trees and more extension cords than an electrician!! Chip got home and just laughed at what I had created. It's a good thing he loves me!

On Sunday (in all the craziness), Chip's cousin, Jackie asked us if we wanted to borrow her artificial tree this year because she wasn't going to be able to use it in her apartment. We always get a real tree, but are leaving on Dec. 26th to go visit my brother in Seattle so we don't want to leave a real tree up and I refuse to take it down on Christmas Day, so we thought why not? And most importantly, it was free. Monday we picked it up from her and took it out of the box on Tuesday night. It was folded up like an accordion. Putting it together was an interesting task. I believe at one point we had the bottom (which is much fuller) in the middle. It looked kind of funny. We finally got it together and put some extra colored lights on it along with some ornaments. The star wouldn't fit on top because it needs a good sturdy limb to hold it up, but I had a ribbon that worked well. I think it looks very good, even though the fresh pine smell is not there. I am thankful for the tree and it brings the Christmas cheer into the house.

Tomorrow the stockings will go onto the piano (our mantle). One day at a time. 

I have a lot to be thankful for this year, I am going to list a few things:

1. My relationship with Christ: This has been extremely important in getting me through this year. There have been many nights and days I have cried wondering what in the world was going on and where God was in all of this. He has had His hand in every aspect of this nursing program. There are many times when I have had to go to the Bible and look at His word to hear exactly what is needed. A lot of times it is scriptures about worrying and my future since these to be my two weakest areas. One scripture I always need reminding of is Jeremiah 29:11- "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

2. My husband- Chip: I know that I could never had made it through this year without Chip. Not only has he been supporting me financially, but he is also there for me emotionally. He listens to me scream, yell, and holds me when I cry. There have been times where it has been much worse than others, but everyday I cherish him and all that he has done for me. I struggle a lot of times to tell him just how important he is to me and how much I appreciate him being there, because he always is. I know that if we made it through this year, we can do anything! He has worked hard and put up with me at my best and my worst. I love him so much and am so thankful for him!

This photo just shows Chip's sense of humor. He downloaded a program at work to create this from a photo and it hung in our living room for about a month. I will never again say "I could really use something to hang on that wall in the living room" because this is what I get!

3. My family: My parents, brothers, grandparents, sisters-in-law, and in-laws have all been so supportive of me throughout this year. They have been encouraging to Chip and me every step of the way. When we need it, they are there to offer an encouraging word or prayer. I am so thankful to have all of them in my life.

4. My friends: Every single one of them that I have just met through nursing school (and only known a short time) and those that I have known for many, many years have been there for me to support me. I am thankful for all of the support that they have to offer.

5. My health: I have made it through this year and most of my life with very few health problems. This year has made me realize just how important it is to be healthy and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Chip and I are going to start working on maintaining our health through diet and exercise (which we rarely do). I have to walk Riley at least a few times a week, but that is a short little walk (with lots of stops for potty breaks). It is more than I would do without her though.