Celebrations continue!

In January Bob and I celebrated 27 years of marriage.  We had an awesome weekend in Williamsburg!  Time alone with the man I love, walking in the brisk night air after a romantic dinner at Captain Georges.  Last weekend was my birthday and my entire family was here celebrating with me.  I have been so blessed.  Bob and I are looking forward to several getaway weekends with Brandon and Nickie this year.  So we are going later today to the RV expo to see if we can find an RV that works with a wheelchair.  We think the "toy" carrying type might fit the bill.  We may however decide to continue using hotels, condos or looking into time shares.  Not sure just yet what is the best fit for us.  We only know we want to enjoy as many weekends and vacation time that we have together. Making that happen when you have a wheelchair is complicated to say the least.  I'd love feed back from those of you that have experience traveling with a motorized wheelchair.  If you have done it with an RV tell me what you did to make it work. 

Long summer, many trials

So much has happened since graduation.  Some wonderful, some very frightening. In May Nickie went to the prom with her boyfriend Ryan!  It was awesome!  The entire junior and senior class gave them a huge welcome to the prom! 

Ryan and Nickie dancing!

Ryan, Linda (Nickie's nurse) and Nickie!

Nickie gave us a big scare when she aspirated a feeding and had to go the ER via ambulance to the local hospital.  She was admitted to the ICU and long story short, they didn't listen to me or her nurse when we said that she needed to be on humidified air while ventilated.  This caused extensive damage to her lungs and honestly there was a time there that we almost lost her.  I wish I had requested a move to a more qualified hospital but I didn't and on the 4th day the Dr. suggested we move her to another better equipped ICU.  She went to MCV and by the grace of God she is now fully recuperated.  The staff at MCV was awesome!  It was difficult having her so far from home but she was in the best hands there.  I'm thankful she pulled through this and grateful for God's grace.  With all the weeks of hospitalization and continued recovery at home testing for state boards was placed on the back burner. 
I'm happy to say I was finally able to do that yesterday and again by God's grace I can now say I'm officially a registered nurse!  A job that was on the table at graduation may still be in sight.... more on that soon.

whirlwind of excitement.

Pinning ceremony was the 11th and it was a fantastic night! We left the next morning for the Outer Banks and had a glorious mini-vacation to celebrate graduation.   Now my search continues for a J O B!  I'm so thankful to God for getting me through school and for my family, friends and all the experiences that have made me who I am today.  That includes all the bad things from my past, for without them I wouldn't be where I am today.  Those bad experiences which include people that pretended to be friends to my face, were placed in my life for a reason.  It wasn't fun at the time, I did indeed learn valuable lessons.  Fortunately I have not lost my trust in mankind and did find some of the best friends in nursing school, friends that I know will last a lifetime!

RN Class of 2010

Today I am an RN graduate.  It is official!  Pinning ceremony is Tuesday and I will post pictures.  I can hardly believe the journey to become an RN is over.  It is by the grace of God that I have been able to do this and it is in His honor that I will dedicate my work.  I want to thank also my wonderful instructors, Jackie Daniel and Lisa Bennett as well as my class for the encouragement and support that you all provided to me.  I must also thank my family for putting up with all the craziness that is nursing school and for not kicking me out when the stresses were so high.  Now the next stage begins.... finding a  JOB.

Happy New Year!

2009! May we all have a healthy, happy and prosperous 2009!

Whew!

Now that Christmas is behind me I can begin to breathe! We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends! Though the build up to Christmas was hectic and crazy with finals, shopping, baking, and such, it has been one of the most enjoyable and peaceful years that I can recall.

I made it through the first semester of RN school! I've been blessed with the best instructors. I have a great bunch of classmates and I had the best clinical group I could have ever asked for. I've made some wonderful friends that I hope will be in my life for a very long time. Thanks to the recommendations of my instructors I will be working in the new year in a part time position working as a nursing assistant at a local hospital. This will provide me with a TON of experience. I am very excited about this new job. It will mean of course that it will be that much more difficult next semester to keep up with my studying but I am very determined and I know I can do it!

I hope each and everyone of you had a blessed Christmas! I'm looking forward to the new year and ending this year by forgiving all those that in my past I felt had wronged me in some way. I also ask that anyone that feels I may have wronged them would also forgive me. I am wiping the slate clean from this point forward! God bless you all and may 2009 bring us all peace, good health and prosperity!

7 year anniversary of 9/11

I can't believe we are fast approaching the 7th year anniversary of 9/11. I'm posting this a little early because I'll be in the middle of a HUGE nursing test that morning and may not have the time to post all the things I am feeling. I find it difficult to even use the word anniversary as I always think of that word as a celebration for a happy event. Celebration of course clashes with the events of 9/11. Seven years later and I still can recall the gut wrenching fear I felt that day. I didn't personally know any of those that lost their lives that fateful day and I know my losses don't compare to those that did lose a loved one. Like the rest of the Americans, true Americans I should say, I lost a sense of comfort, safety, and many other things that I can't begin to articulate.

Seven years have passed and like many other Americans I have gone about tending to the things in my life that needed to be tended to, caring for my family, working, schooling, and so on. The events of what happened on 9/11 though not in the forefront of my mind on a daily basis is still never far away. I just wanted to say that though on 9/11 I will be sure to take time to pray for all those that were involved that were injured or lost their lives that day, for those that were involved in taking down a plane or saving people from burning buildings, for those doctors, nurses, emergency personal, firefighters and all the countless others I'm not mentioning, remember them. I pray too that we will be able to soon find all those involved with that horrible act and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Please don't forget on that day of remembrance to also pray for the men and women risking their lives to find those evil men and women that were involved with the acts that culminated in the attack that day. They need our prayers each and everyday.

Christmas memories 200

Santa was sneaky! He was quiet and he stuffed things so far under the tree that when Brandon and I came down it was apparent he had visited but we couldn't tell the extent of the items. There were so many items back behind the tree that we couldn't see when we came down. It wasn't till Brandon was sitting down on the floor reaching for what he thought was the last item that he caught a glimpse of the packages still in hiding. It was like a treasure hunt! The kids were so happy and that was the biggest gift I could get! In what seemed like minutes but was more lie an hour and a half later all the gifts were opened and the only thing was to try it all out and clean up the mess. I hope you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

Its been a hectic month here in our neck of the woods. I am sure you all know how that is. We are done with the shopping and wrapping of gifts and looking forard to Christmas eve dinner and all the excitement of Christmas day. I think we were able to find all the right gifts for those on our list. Last Saturday we went to the local tree farm and cut down a tree, all of us: Bob, Shaun, Jackie(and her nurse, Linda), Nickie, Brandon and I piled into 2 vehicles. It didn't take us long to find the perfect tree. Nickie and Brandon lined up for the required photo.

Jackie and Brandon decorated the tree this year with Nickie's supervision! They did a fine job!

Brandon decorated the Christmas village all by himself!

Bob and I presented the kids with an early Christmas gift for the entire family. I'd like to present Rikki, the newest member of our family.



Many years ago we had a ferret and I'd been saying for sometime that I wanted to get another one when we had the space. If you've never had one of these guys for a pet you have no idea how much fun they can be. They love their people and the mischief they get into is tons of fun! Rikki is showing a little more personality each day. He already seems to have a routine. Each morning either Bob or I goes down to see if he is awake and he is usually up early each morning. If I get him then I place him in the bed with Bob to wake him up. If Bob gets him he does the same to me. After a few minutes of play I take him to Brandon's room to wake him up. Rikki seems to enjoy his job and its a much nicer way to be woken up then say a buzzing alarm!

I can't wait to celebrate with my whole gang in one house. I wish you all the happiest Christmas! May the spirit of God be with you all and may you stay safe!
Love to you all!

in an email from Trish today!

I had sent my dear friend Trish a Christmas card a few days ago and today in my email I got the below... See this is the way it is supposed to be... those of you that read my "inner circle" posts know just what I'm talking about.


I recently got this note in a Christmas card:

All I did was forward a wonderful e-mail sent to me in hopes of finding that one special family to receive this wonderful gift!! Click on the link below, and see the photos - It IS amazing - and what a joy to know this family is getting this done for them - they have a son who is autistic, and as you all know, my Lucas (grandson - age 5), is also autistic - so, this 'really' has a lot of meaning to me!! God bless this family and THANK YOU, Lillie!! Love you!!

Check this out!


Speaking of the show, rumor has it that Ty Pennington was kicked out of our Farmville Mulligans for drunken behavior and there is also a rumor that he got a DUI that night as well. I've heard this on the radio as well as from many of the locals. I've also heard conflicting info from those that were able to meet him in person. Some say he was a heck of a nice guy, while others said he was a complete jerk. I don't know what the truth is but I'll continue to believe that he is a nice guy until he proves me wrong. I'm sure rumors will continue to abound around here for years to come. It isn't often something that exciting happens in a small town like ours.

Till next time!

Thanksgiving memories

Whew! It's been years since I cooked Thanksgiving dinner myself. Now I remember why! I spent hours preparing the meal. While everyone else was enjoying talking to family I was slaving over a hot stove! The funny thing is I really enjoyed it this time. You see usually I take a huge short cut and buy a Ukrops turkey dinner. You know the kind you only have to reheat. Their dinners are delicious but I was kinda tired of the same old sides and said this year I'm gonna do it the right way!
The menu was as follows:
Turkey, glazed ham, homemade stuffing, sweet potato casserole, broccoli and cheese casserole, string bean casserole, hot rolls, country ham slices, mac and cheese (brought by a friend), potato salad (my husband's specialty) and homemade gravy (made by a friend). Actually all the above was completely homemade. I did buy store bought pumpkin pies. It was all so good even if I say so myself.
It was great to see everyone. We ended up feeding 12 but had expected 18 so I had lots of extra food for everyone to take home with them. Its so difficult to get everyone together anymore. I remember in the early years when we would all gather at my grandmother in-laws (is that even a word? I dunno!) , Nana's, all hubby's siblings and their kids and his parents would meet at her house for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Now we hardly ever see them all anymore. Sometimes that isn't a bad thing. The kids are grown and spread all out and a good number of those kids now have kids of their own. Not mine, mind you... and they better not anytime soon. I've threatened them within an inch of their lives if they think of making me a grandma anytime soon. My oldest son says not to worry he isn't ready for kids yet, he's 23. My oldest daughter isn't seeing anyone yet and isn't sure when or if she wants to have kids. My youngest recently said he wants to live with us forever and if he does marry he wants her to move in with us... take into account he is 9. I'm just happy he loves us so much that he doesn't ever want to leave. I know this won't be the case in his teen years. Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mother's day

Happy first mother's day to Diane! Happy mother's day to all mothers. I was lucky to have all my loved ones with me today. Shaun and Alexis came and brought me one of those great Hallmark musical cards as well as a 2 pack DVD set of Grease one and two. I love those movies, especially the second one. I love the music in that one the best. Jackie bought me a 3 CD set of the 50's and 60's hits and a 3 CD set of the 80's hits. This should complete my collection since I recently bought a similar set of Cd's for the 70's. So now I have a really nice collection of the songs I love best. Brandon and Nickie worked together on a home made card and my loving hubby bought me the item I'd been wanting for a few weeks, a DVD recorder. Now I can transfer all our home videos to DVDs, YEAH!
On a slight twist of the traditional mother's day. My mom came and prepared dinner for all of us. A traditional Cuban feast, black beans and rice and pork. It was delicious and as usual we all ate too much. The food and the company was fantastic! I hope you all had as nice a day as I did!