Anniversary

On Thursday, Bob and I will celebrate being married for 4 years. I feel like we've been married much longer than that (and I don't mean that in a bad way at all). Maybe the fact that we lived together for 2 years prior to getting married is why I feel like it's been longer. We have pretty much been inseparable since we started dating in May 2001.

I can't help but think about what an impact Bob has had on my life. Before I met Bob I was walking down a dangerous path of self-destruction. The things I was doing at that time are not things I was proud of, nor were they things that I wanted to include in the definition of who I was. Part of me feels like Bob rescued me from that life. He swept me off my feet and saved me from the life I was living. I could have been doing things much worse than I was doing, but the activites I was participating in wasn't who I really was. It's weird that through dating Bob I discovered who I was, and who I really wanted to become.

Most people probably thought Bob and I were crazy when three weeks into our relationship we announced we were moving from MN to WI to go back to school. We weren't going to be living together, but we were moving to another state together. It was very very difficult for me to make this decision. I would be moving in with my grandmother, which was AMAZING. BUT...I would be leaving behind my mom, the place I called home, and some very great friends. I remember crying and crying and saying goodbyes I never wanted to say. Bob was there for me the entire time. He was so supportive; giving me space when I needed it, and a shoulder to cry on when I needed that.

Despite the fear and sadness that came with the move, I believe 100% it was the single greatest decision I have made in my life. I was able to start fresh, escape the people that I felt were holding me back, and begin a new life with the man I loved.

Bob and I registered for classes together at the University of WI-Marathon County. Pretty much all my aunts and uncles went to this 2 year UW school. We took all our classes together and really enjoyed going to college and expanding our horizons. It was simply AMAZING to share this time with Bob. Without Bob's constant support (and nagging), I never would have found the ambition and drive to make it through that first semester.

Bob has continued to be the greatest support EVER as I have embarked on my journey through nursing school. I don't know what I would do without him. When I'm overwhelmed and just want to quit, it's Bob that's reminding me why I started this journey in the first place. When I don't have time to do laundry and memorize Fluid and Electrolyte levels, it's Bob that's washing and folding AND offering to do the rest of the weekly chores. He's simply the best. I can't say enough great things about him. I just love him to pieces. I don't know what I would do without him, or where I would be without him. Part of me thinks that I would have gotten myself together on my own, while another part thinks I'd be living the same life I had been living.

I just know that without Bob my life would not even be half as happy as it is now. Without Bob I would never have experienced the love of a soul mate. It's hard to put into words what my husband has done for me. We've only been together for 8 years, but I know that they have been the 8 greatest years of my life, and I can't wait to spend every day of the rest of my life as Mrs. McInnis.

Diaper Cake

One of my best friends is due to have her first baby on August 23rd. Her shower was last weekend and as a gift I made her a diaper cake. I thought I would share some pictures.


Close up of some of the things I put "inside" the cake:

I ended up adding two more tiers after this

Half-way done!

A view from above:

"The Village"

I just wasted 2 hours of my life watching "The Village." What the heck was that movie?! I was watching it thinking the movie had another 30 minutes to go...you know, to wrap things up and to make everything actually make sense...and all the sudden the credits start rolling!
Maybe I'm just tired, but did that movie make any sense to ANYONE out there?! I read a synposis of the movie on www.imdb.com (GREAT SITE BTW), and it makes a tiny bit of sense now, but I still feel like it was a pointless, waste of time and money movie! I just hate wasting time on lame movies.

However, I went to "The Proposal" on Monday night. GREAT movie. Super funny. I also watched "Transformers 2" last night. It's alright. It was long, but I liked it. Movies that have a lot of action are easier for me to watch at home...on a smaller screen. I just can't watch high-paced fight scenes on the giant screen. I can't tell who is who. (I know..I am lame).

Tomorrow Bob and I are going to see "The Hangover." I can't wait. I've heard it is just super funny. I kinda wanna see "Bruno" too. I've heard it is funny, but offensive. Oh and I HAVE HAVE HAVE to see "My Sister's Keeper." It's one of my favorite books EVER! I gotta bring a ton of tissues. The book is written by Jodi Picoult. She is the best author in the world. I highly recommend every single one of her books (except "Songs of the Humpback Whale" I didn't like that one). I also cannot wait for HARRY POTTER. I want to go at midnight opening night, but I'm a loser with no friends that love Harry Potter like I do. Summer always has the best movies. Which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Why not have winter be good movie time since there's nothing to do in the winter?!!? Hello... Maybe I should be a movie person instead of a nurse?

A Day at the Cabin

While I was in Wisconsin I spent the day at my aunt and uncle's cabin. I went up there with my aunt and three of her kids (Savannah-5, Timmy-7, and Lydia-12).

We got there at night so we had a bon fire and made s'mores. I think I ate 4 s'mores. They are so tasty. We did have some excitement during the bonfire...The blanket that was covering Savannah and me kinda started on fire. I think a spark from the fire must have hit it. Savannah was pretty scared. There's a nice hole in the blanket now.

The next day we played in the water, went kayaking, rode in the paddle boat, fished, and played on the tire swing.

Here's some pictures

Timmy is pulling Savannah on the "surf board"

Timmy and the fish he caught from the paddle boat:
Savannah fishing off the dockTimmy "surfing"

Timmy and Savannah on the tire swing:

Lastly, the view from the dock

Grandma's Surgery

My grandma had surgery back on June 2nd to remove a cancerous tumor from her kidney. I was able to fly home to be with her for the procedure as well as for two weeks afterwards.
The morning of surgery we had to be at the hospital at 5:30 a.m. This meant we had to leave her house by 4:45. Of course the night before I was so worried I couldn't get any sleep. I think I ended up with 3 hours of sleep that night.
The brought grandma back to the pre-op area and I got to go back and see her before surgery. The doctors were really hoping to do robotic surgery because it has a much shorter healing time. They called me two hours into the procedure to tell me they were using the robot and the surgery was going very well.
Around 1:00 that afternoon Grandma made it to her room. She was very sleepy, which I totally expected. She would sleep for thirty minutes then wake up, ask how surgery went and fall back to sleep. Then thirty minutes later she would do the same exact thing.
She cracked me up when respiratory therapy came in to her room to teach her deep breathing exercises. They were teaching her how to use the incentive spirometer, and she wanted nothing to do with it. As he was telling her how to use it, she took it out of his hands and showed him she already knew what she was doing. He was taken aback, but it was still funny to me.
She was able to go home 2 days later. She got sick the day she was coming home becasue she was given a pain pill after not having eaten solid food for three days! I felt pretty bad for her.
She was really tired and cold for the first few days after surgery. (Completely normal and expected) She also developed a cough so I made her keep doing her deep breathing exercises every 30 minutes. I'm sure it drove her crazy but I didn't want her getting pneumonia.
She stayed pretty tired up until the days before I left.
I'm so grateful I was there to take care of her. It was kinda nice to cook and clean for her after she did it for me for two years while I was in college.
I love my grandma a ton and just loved spending two weeks with her.

Spending Time On The Boat

Today Bob and I went on Jonathan and Candice's boat for the day. It was so much fun. I forgot my camera, which totally bums me out, but as soon as I can, I will steal the pictures from their camera and post them on here.
We spent most of the day in the water. It was a little chilly. We also went tubing for a little bit. They have a 2 person tube so Candice and I rode together. The boys couldn't flip us off though :)
It was so nice to be in the water all day. I got a little red, but usually my sunburn turns into tan in a few days. I love having a nice tan, but in the back of my mind I always have this little voice saying "Melanoma....out on sunscreen."
I am super exhausted from swiming, drinking, and being in the sun all day. I have to stay up for at least one more out, though. Alabama and Arizona State are playing in an elimination game. :)
Hope to get back out on the boat soon.
Thanks Candice and Jonathan!!!

The Scrapbooking Adventure Continues

Tonight I decided to get back to work on my San Francisco scrapbook. I looked back on Snapfish today to see how many pictures we took while we were out there...the grand total is 798! No wonder this is taking me so long. We were there for 5 days and I may be done with one whole day.

I have made pages for all the pictures we took of Alcatraz. We took a night tour so the sun was setting as the boat was going around Acatraz Island. It was simply beautiful.

I also made pages for the pictures we took when we went to the wax museum. I had never been to a wax museum and was really excited to go. It's really amazing how artists can make wax look exactly like a human being. Granted some statues weren't very accurate, but it's still really cool to see. My favorite section in the museum was the artist section. They showed DiVinci painting the "Mona Lisa" as well as Norman Rockwell, VanGogh, and more

Anyways, back to the scrapbook.

I also finished the section about our adventure through Daly City, CA. In San Francisco itself we didn't see much of the ocean so we decided to take the train to Daly City; which is on the coast, and according to the public transportation map, the train station is only a few blocks from the ocean. However, the map failed to show the massively giant we had to climb, and also failed to show the 4 lane highway that didn't have a crosswalk that we would have to sprint across. Luckily we made it to the coast alive. Unfortunately you wouldn't actually get to the ocean because Daly City lies right on San Andreas fault. It's really dangerous to walk down to the coast. There were giant cliffs that were the result of previous earthquakes.

I still have to make sections from our time at the Painted Ladies, on the Golden Gate Bridge, at the Tea Garden, in Coit Tower, and of all the random pictures I took.

Here's two pictures of what my dining rom looks like as I take on this project:

Sewing snafu

My friend, Sara, and her husband, Ken, are expecting their first child in August. They are two of our closest friends down here and we are so EXCITED for their daughter (Mia Alexandra) to arrive.

Yesterday I decided I wanted to sew something for the baby. My mom got me a sewing machine a few years ago as a Christmas present. It worked well for about 1-2 years, but within in the last year it hasn't worked well at all. The piece that holds the bobbin keeps popping out. It's a real pain to put it back in place, and once it is in place it only stays in place for a few stitches. I might try to bring it into a sewing machine repair place, but at the same time, I don't want to pay someone 50$ to fix the machine when I can buy a decent new one for $125.

I found a nicer Brother machine at overstock.com for $125. It's computerized and does some little embroidery. It's actually the machine they use on the show "Project Runway." Not that that is a selling point, but it might mean it holds up well.

I guess I have a decision to make -- which I hate doing. I'm so bad at making decisions. (Even if it's what to order at Taco Bell).

I'll keep ya'll updated on how things go.

Here's the machine I'm looking at:

Summer Fun!

The other day Candice and I decided it would be fun to play on the Slip and Slide. Her kids (Taylor and Esmee) and Taylor's friend Michael were having so much fun that Candice and I decided to join them.

The water was cold and the slight breeze made it feel even colder, but we had a blast

Here's pictures of our fun:

This one is of the 3 kids just laying in the water.

Esmee in her super cute bikini!

The picture above is me going down the slide! Sooo fun :)

Call me Betty Crocker

Tomorrow is my good friend's birthday (Candice). We are planning to celebrate on their boat. She made me a wonderful cake for my birthday, so I decided to give cake decorating a try for her birthday. I'm very happy with my end results. Here's some pictures!

Not bad for a first timer! It was a lot of fun to decorate. It's a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Candice's favorite color is pink, so what better for her birthday, than a hot pink flower cake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANDICE!

Love you!!

June 5th

I'm so excited for June 5th! I'll be in WI and have such fun plans already.

It's the day after my grandma's surgery, which is kind of a bummer, but I'll be spending the day in Green Bay.

First I'm starting the day at the Packers Pro Shop Tent sale. They sell all the stuff from the previous season for super cheap. I hope Bob is aware of how much I plan on spending that day. I mean honestly, can a girl ever own too much Packer stuff?! Hollee is joining me! She doesn't even own Packer clothes, so we definitely have to deck out her wardrobe. I'm kinda hoping they have the Packer scrubs for cheap.

Afterwards, we are celebrating AMBER'S BIRTHDAY!! I can't believe she's going to be 20 years old. I remember when she was in 7th grade and loved NSYNC and had a crush on a boy named Willy. I took her and her BFF Kerrie shopping for make-up. Even then I was so excited at the prospect of marrying Bob and possibly having a younger sister.

Having Amber in my life is 100 times better than I ever imagined it could be. I love her more than I could ever explain. She's so smart and funny. I have more fun and laugh harder with Amber than I have with anyone ever in my entire life. You wouldn't even believe the fun and laughs we share just riding in a car! From dancing to "Independence Day" to getting guys to wave money at us, we have a blast.

I am so thankful to have Amber in my life. She is my best friend, an inspiration, and just an overall human being. I miss her so freaking much now that I live in TN, but our daily text messages and phone calls are going to have to suffice for a few years.

Amber, if you're reading this, please know how much I love you and how excited I am to see you on your 20th birthday!!!

Here's 2 of my fave pictures of me and Amber:

The furniture has arrived!

My new TV table is finally here! It's so pretty and I just LOVE it.

Old TV stand:

New TV Stand:

Notice I'm watching Pardon The Interruption (one of my favorite shows).

Here's the rest of the living room:

Scrapbooking is a Chore

When Bob and I went to San Francisco in December, we took TONS of pictures. And by tons I mean over 500. We were there for 5 days, I think, and were definitely picture happy.

As we were there we kept saying how we were going to put all the pictures into a scrapbook. (And by "We" we meant me).

So on Monday I decided it was time to finally start making a scrapbook. I guess I'm cheap, but I was shocked that just the album is like $30! Needless to say I bought a smaller one (regular paper size). I bought some plain colored paper and some really cute stickers.
When I got home I was so excited to start my project. Then...I realized we took 500 pictures and this was a much bigger project than I ever dreamt it would be.

I spent about 5 hours on Monday night starting to make some pages. I got through our 10 pictures from Lombard Street and started doing a few of the pages from when we went to Alcatraz. Today I spent another 3-4 hours on it, and FINALLY got through our massive stack of Alcatraz pictures. I have now completed 35 pages of the scrapbook, which 31 of those pages being solely Alcatraz pictures.

I still have so many pictures to go through! AND...since I bought the smaller album, I'm going to have to buy at least one more scrapbook album to hold all these pictures! I really thought that this was going to be a less daunting task than it is.

I know that once I'm done it will be well worth all the work, but right now, I'm not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel and it's a little discouraging.

Below are a few pictures from our trip:

Chinatown:

Bob and me with The Painted Ladies in the background:

Careplans

I had a nice laugh this weekend when I was organizing my office. I came across my 3-ring binder for Clinicals. I decided I wanted to look at my old careplans. My very first ever careplan says "Impaired physical mobility." That's it. I didn't list a "related to" or an "as evidenced by." I'm surprised I didn't get kicked out of school ;)
My second careplan was a little improved; "Risk for injury releated to disorientation as evidenced by recent falls." I bet you anything that as I wrote that I thought I was so freaking smart and so proud of myself. And now, two semesters later, I just laugh at it.
Now for our most recent nursing diagnosis:
"Risk for impaired skin integrity related to decreased peripheral sensation, decreased physical mobility, imbalanced nutritional state, PICC line in place, and mositure from stool leakage secondary to total parenteral nutrition, diabetes, and stool incontinence."

What a difference a year makes -- even when it comes to writing a careplan.

Birthday Weekend

I had the best birthday weekend! My birthday was Sunday, but we pretty much celebrated all weekend.


Friday night we went to Olive Garden. Yum! We had wonderful stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer. They were so delicious. Then, of course, I had my portabello mushroom ravioli. I could live off that stuff. It's so tasty.

After dinner we went to the furniture store to look at entertainment centers. And we found one we both loved! I'm so excited. It's being delivered on Wednesday afternoon, so I'll make sure I post pictures when it's here.


After that we went and bought me a new desk for my office. It's a glass L-shaped desk. I need lots of room to spread out when I'm studying. I absolutely love my "new" office. We stayed up until about 2 a.m. cleaning and re-arranging furniture.


Saturday night Candice, Jonathan, Esme, and Taylor came over for dinner. It was so nice to have them over. We grilled out cheeseburgers and brats and drank lots of beer and chatted. They gave me a gift certificate to the spa, and some bath salts, as well as a gift set from Crabtree and Evelyn. I think tonight I will definitely be relaxing in the bathtub.


Sunday was my actual birthday and Bob and I celebrated by going to see "Angels & Demons." I read the book about 3 years ago and have been waiting for this movie to come out since then! It was pretty good. I love all of Dan Brown's books, and would highly recommend all of them. We also went to Barnes and Noble. I got the book "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" by Ayelet Waldman. I've read it before and loved it. It is a really good book about a mother that loses her child and she tries to come to terms with the baby's death while trying to raise her step-son.


Bob gave me some new shirts for my birthday as well as the movie "Taken" and a three movie set of Jennifer Aniston movies. We watched "Taken" last night after eating dinner. It was pretty good.

Bob bought me a strawberry pie. It wasn't as good as Perkins strawberry pie, but I still loved it.

Notice the candles say "25?" It's not that my husband doesn't know how old I am, it says 25 because I prefer to stay 25 for a few more years. What a great guy to play along with my fantasy of still being 25!

I'm so thankful for all the wonderful birthday gifts and for getting to spend my b-day with great friends!

Gavin Rossdale is AMAZING

As soon as the lineup for Sundown in the City was released a few months ago, the May 14th show caught my eye and I knew I just had to be there last night. GAVIN ROSSDALE was scheduled to perform. I loved him back when he was with BUSH and even his new solo stuff is pretty good.

I was so excited all day for last night. It was supposed to be a double with Candice and Jonathan, but we ended up turning it into a girls night. We had dinner at Oodles Uncorked, then made our way into the crowd.

I got to see Maria Buck again for the first time in forever! I love this girl and miss working with her so much.

Maria and the people she at dinner with were sitting right next to Gavin at dinner. I was so jealous to hear of her luck! Here's a super cute picture of Candice and me:

Gavin was so awesome to see. He did mostly BUSH stuff. He may have done one of his solo songs, but Candice and I got stuck in the line for the bathroom behind a really drunk guy that actually fell while in line and chugged some random drink that was sitting on top of the wall. EWW! Gavin also sang "Landslide," which totally brought tears to my eyes. Back in highschool Bethany and I would bust out to the Dixie Chicks version of that song on our drive home from school (it was always a race to her apartment to see NSYNC on TRL).

Here's some pictures of Gavin. We started out facing the stage, but made our way to the side of the stage and got much closer:

By the end of the concert is was POURING rain. Needless to say we were dripping wet and so was Gavin.
And now for the BEST picture of the entire night:

I wish there wasn't a drop of water covering most of his face, but I can still tell it's him. It was such a fun night and meeting Gavin at the end of the night was simply AMAZING.

Going Home!

I just got the most amazing birthday present ever.; I'M GOING HOME FOR TWO WEEKS! I fly into Wausau on June 2nd and I'm staying until June 16th! Two whole weeks with my family. My grandma is having surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on her kidney on June 4th, so I am so thankful to get to be there for her surgery.

I'll also get to be in WI for Amber's birthday; which is also right around the time of the Packers Pro School Tent Sale, so I will definitely be doing some shopping.

I'm so excited and thankful that I get to go home for an entire two weeks!!

Haircuts

As I said a few days ago, we decided to cut the dog's hair. They are so precious. They both look so fuzzy and like they did when they were puppies.

Here's a few pictures.

These first two are Emma. We cut about 3 inches of hair off her neck and chest area:

Kirby didn't want to pose for pictures but here's a few of him

Mom's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
I really hope my mom has a great mother's day. I'm so bummed I don't get to spend it with her. It's actually also my mom's birthday today! So it's even more special. I talked to her for about an hour today and she is going to Wausau to see my grandma, which will be fun. I just wish I could celebrate her birthday and mother's day with her.
My mom is coming for 10 days in July/August, so I will definitely do something special for her when she's down here. When Bob and I were in San Francisco I bought her some things in China Town and shipped them to her as her Birthday present. I wish I would have remembered to take pictures of the beautiful porcelin bowl we got her. I also sent her two pounds of Starbucks coffee for Mother's Day. Ever since I stopped working there my mom hasn't been getting her free coffee and has been forced to choke down some Folgers. EWW!
Anyways, Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there, especially you MOM!!

It's Summer Vaca

I have been out of school officially since Wednesday! Thursday was so great to sleep in and basically do NOTHING! I re-checked my Med-Surg grade about 10 times on Thursday to make sure I actually passed. And I did! It still seems like an illusion to see that "B" on my transcript in that class. I never could have done it without Bob's support. He's an amazing husband. Between doing the laundry and dishes and telling me how smart I am, he was everything I needed to survive my first year of nursing school.
Two weeks ago I would have looked you in the eye and honestly told you I didn't think I was going to pass Med-Surg. I have been in college at least part-time since 2001 and can honestly say that Med-Surg is the hardest class I have EVER taken. I am so incredibly happy that I passed and even happier that I pulled out a B in that class! I rock :) I'm so happy, as well, that all the great friend I have made in nursing school also passed (Kayla, Candice, Diane, and Rhonda). I am 100% sure there were some that didn't make it and I really feel for them. I can't imagine the disappointment they are feeling right now. The good news is that they can re-apply and can still become wonderful RNs. I don't believe that your grade in Med-Surg I is an indication of the nurse you become. But enough about nursing school...IT'S SUMMER!
Friday night we spent with the Brickey's. I was so glad to drink some beer and BBQ with them. I met Candice in nursing school and couldn't be more thankful that she was in my very first clinical group. She is more like me than anyone else I have met in Nursing school. We have so much fun when we hang out with her and her husband (Jonathan). They have two of the cutest kids ever (Taylor and Esme). We played ROCK BAND last night which was fun, as always. We could play GO FISH with Candice and Jonathan and have a blast. I can't explain it, but the 4 of us just fit together well. Below is me and Candice playing ROCK BAND!

This is Candice and Jonathan's son singing during ROCK BAND. He made up some pretty good lyrics when he was singing. I definitely think the kid has a future in music!

Saturday morning was full of cleaning. YUCK! Cleaning makes me soo crabby. I just don't like to do it. Maybe Obama should enact a law where Nurses don't have to clean and someone will come clean their house for them every week. I'll work on that :) The Rathers (Ken and Sara) came over for dinner. We made homemade pizza and played more ROCK BAND. Bob and Ken "groomed" the dogs. Well, they really just groomed Kirby. I was so scared for him to get a haircut. Maybe I'm weird, but it's Kirby's first haircut and I didn't want him to look like a giant dork. He actually looks pretty good. I was surprised. After a night of food and ROCK BAND, Ken and Sara went home and Bob and I started to groom Emma. We were in the garage with the clippers and Emma for about 2 hours and we are about half way done!!! I guess we will finish tomorrow. Grr...I just want to sit on the couch and read all day long. I started a new book as soon as school was out and I am soooo excited to be able to read for fun.

Tomorrow I might actually get to meet Tyler James Stewart for the first time!!! His mommy, Sarah, and I used to work together at Starbucks, but have kind of drifted apart recently. I can't express how much I hate drifting apart and losing close friends. Sarah was the first real friend I made in TN. She married Nathan, also from SBux, and I got to stand up in their wedding! Their baby is so cute, but I've only gotten to see pictures. I miss Sarah. She's the only person I know that hates living in TN as much as I do! I can't wait to see her and her son!
Anyways
I got a b-day card today in the mail from my grandma. It made my day. I love my grandma soooo much -- more than words could express. She's been having a tough couple of months (broken back, kidney cancer) and I wish more than anything I could be there with her. I really miss my family. I wish I could see my mom more than once a year at Christmas as well. Sometimes I hate growing up because the sadness that comes with it can be more than I think I can handle. However, as I have grown up, I have come to believe that God never gives us more than we can handle. There's lots of times we think there's too much on our plate, but we always make it through it and always are stronger than we believe we are. I feel in my heart that being away from my family is just another bump in the road, and distance only makes the heart grow fonder. I can't even tell you how much I love my family. My family is who I am. They are my rock, the sun in my sky, and everything I use to define me. I am REALLY hoping to get home for a few weeks this summer. In all honesty, I want to be "home" for my grandma's surgery then stay so I can go to my cousin Michelle's graduation party. She's going to AZ State next year. I only get to see her at Christmas, but I just know I will miss her even more than I already do knowing she's in AZ and not in MN. Her older sister Lindsey is also leaving MN to go to school in CO to be closer to her boyfriend. I'm happy for both of them. They are like little sisters to me. I love them more than they will ever understand -- they are the little sisters I never had (along with my other cousin Liz).
Anyways, it is way past my bedtime. I'm going to finish my Corona and hit the sack!!