"...just a moment of change"

Well, this is my first Christmas holiday where I am NOT enjoying a 3-week vacation from school. sad days in the "real world", i'll tell ya! So.....to try and spice up the season, I decided last minute that I would hang up some christmas lights in my apartment! haha! And don't you worry....they will probably stay up until like March! My mom sent my stocking back here to arizona with me.....so i also hung that up by my fireplace! ALSO....my cousin mara and I spray painted by bedframe to vamp it up a little---and my cousin Jason helped me set it all up now that it's fresh and dry! It makes my room feel a little more like a bedroom now, so that's nice! I almost have to leap up into my bed now because it's so high! I love it! Now all i need are some curtains! hmm....

I spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning with my aunt, uncle, and cousins at their new house out here! It was so much fun! Here are some pictures of the fun day, as well as my lit up apartment and new bed! lovelovelove!



hello colts in the background :-) woop woop!
Nick got me a colts towel....so this is hanging in my kitchen! :-) it's crooked now that i look at this....i'll have to fix that later :)



Crazy mowgli hiding under all of the wrapping paper! haha...look at how scary his eyes look! Goodmorning:-)
cousin nathan "warming his hands" by our fake yule log! haha....yep...they actually had this on a tv station for all of Christmas morning--crazy arizona! ....christmas music and all!

I'll be home for Christmas...

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! But this should make up for it! I got to go back to Indiana to celebrate Christmas! I can't even explain how good it was to be back and to see a lot of my friends and family!! I couldn't see everyone, but I did get to see a lot of people and I tried to fit as much in as i could!! Here are some fun pictures from my trip!!

Me and traci love to try and embarrass nick as much as possible!! he actually looks pretty happy in this one though :-) It was after his school christmas concert!

Early morning IHOP run! Yep, we went as soon as we woke up :-) we don't let showers get in the way of eating! HA!
Mom and dad (yep....this is IHOP run round 2...the next day!) i can't get enough of that place!
My bestest Jessa!! It was so good to see her! Here we are eating it up at the Roadhouse!
seester traci! this was when we were opening presents!

PANYCAKES!!! yep....more IHOP! i told you i love this place! two of my favorite boys!!!
brother enjoying the christmas present i got him! yep...guitar hero!
Granny and I!!
Nick, pop, traci, and me!
Merry Christmas to those of you who haven't celebrated it yet!!! I keep forgetting it still isn't here since we already had ours!! I'm back in arizona now! I have christmas eve off, so I'll be with the kriegers that night! Then i work on christmas night....kinda weird since i've always had every holiday off for as many years as i've been alive until now....but hey....that's the real world for you! AAAND the career i chose! Don't worry though.....my patients will probably get super annoyed with me because i will be saying Merry Christmas ALL NIGHT!!! :-) wahoo! I will make sure they DO NOT miss out on the Christmas spirit :-) love you all!

some of my random thoughts outloud...

#1:
I just read an absolutely amazing book that I can't rave enough about. It was so amazing that I just need to give it a shout-out and promote it a bit! I know it's soooo 2003, but i just now read it! It's called Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. Yes, you could call it a christian sort of book, but it's just his random thoughts about life...and honestly there are some life-changing thoughts in it. And it's hysterical....i laughed out loud multiple times...including in public at a starbucks! :-) So read it!
#2:
I just bought the special holiday starbucks frappe's...the ones they sell in the grocery. I put a picture so you don't have to think too hard! This is the original kind....but the holiday flavor is "dark peppermint mocha".....umm....SO GOOD. If you want to feel like sipping some rich chocolate. then definitely buy it and drink it. it's a party in your mouth. mom....you would LOVE these!

#3:
I love my Colts. No, they haven't done great these past two weeks, but I guess it's good they got these losses out of the way early....and i know we'll be okay! I just want to give a shout-out to my main man, Addai. seriously....he rocks. that is all. he might need to be my husband. did i just say that outloud?!
#4:
And now that i've remembered i can put ANY pictures on here instead of just pics of me doing weird things, i am very excited. these pictures i found on google have opened a whole new world to me! so just expect random pictures of things i like from now on! haha! i'm a loser. have a good week! love you all!

workin' girl

Well, I finally have some pictures from work! I worked on Halloween, so I have some pictures of myself dressed up as a nurse! okay bad joke!.....but I DID wear some special halloween scrubs with some happy pumpkins and ghosts on them! haha! I was hoping for something more dark....like bats or witches, or maybe something glow-in-the-dark, but I was too lazy to shop around....so that's all i could find. Anyways....these pictures also commemorate the last week of my preceptor-ship with Heather. That's right....as of this past week, I am on my own at work now. And by that, I mean that I have all my own patients and I no longer have Heather working directly with me. It is kinda sad....i got used to having her there to answer all my questions...and we had lots of fun! BUT...she taught me well, and the first two days by myself have gone pretty well! And honestly....all the people I work with are super nice and i can also go to them with any questions I have and they are always willing to help me out if i need anything. Sooooo here are some people i work with!

Me and Heather!
Me acting like I'm giving Felix a shot with a massive needle.....he doesn't look as amused as I am!
Fulton eating our Halloween cupcakes! We like to eat!
Me and Heather acting out what we'd like to be doing!

In other news, I ordered take-out chinese food tonight. To many of you, you might not think that is a big deal. But to others, you will realize that this is something you thought I would never say. haha.....so this is a shout-out to my former His Instrument-ers who for 2 years have very kindly tried to stay away from chinese food when we ate out most of the time. And sometimes when everyone else wanted it, I would go along with it because it wasn't awful....and I could just get some chicken and be fine for a meal. Well, those few times that we did eat it made me realize it was actually kinda good. And today when I woke up, there was a take-out menu sticking out of my front door---and it sounded SO GOOD. hahah....so there you have it. I ordered some chicken fried rice, egg rolls, and sweet 'n sour chicken! yummy! Apparently my taste buds have blossomed and changed a little:-) Be proud, my friends!

ALSO, i think i found a church! I don't want to get too excited just yet, but I have been visiting a church for the past 3 weeks, and I have enjoyed it SO MUCH. The church hunt had become quite discouraging, and so far this church seems like a great fit for me. I am going to visit some small groups over the next couple weeks and hopefully find one that i can get involved in and meet some people! Alright....well that's pretty much the latest with me! Love you all!

"Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord"

The words from the song quoted above have never felt so real during this time of my life. I am loving my time out here, but it has been very hard at times. I am learning more than ever to lean on God and really rely on Him for my strength as I go through a lot of things by myself these days. And to be completely honest, during this time where I need Him most, He has felt most distant so far. It sucks during this waiting time, but I know He's there and I truly believe He has a better plan than I could ever make for myself. But waiting on that plan has been very hard. And so....I wait. I continue to seek Him even when He is quiet. I know that at some point in the future I will look back and see how much I have grown during this time, but for now I would really appreciate your prayers as I go through all these transitions in my life! Those prayers mean more than you know to me!

In lighter news, I have a couple pictures here of me enjoying some cookies I made, AND some jet tea. Yes.....this favorite of mine straight from the IWU coffee shop known as McConn was sent my way by my friend Jeffrey via Kami during her trip out to arizona a couple weeks ago! It's been nice having a familiar taste!! THANKS MUCH!! And Kami's name is on it--apparently b/c she didn't want anyone to steal it before it got to me! haha! nice, kami!
Also, the Halloween birthday girl (my cousin Mara!) had her birthday dinner tonight!! It was lots of fun to get together and celebrate with her! So here are a few pictures from our fun dinner!

the birthday girl after blowing out her candle!


Me and cousin Jess!!


The boys....i think brent was the only one ready for this picture! haha!

"I get by with a little help from my friends"

Hello to all my friends and family! It's been a while! I've sort-of neglected my blogging recently, so I have a little bit to catch up on! First, I had the pleasure of going home a few weeks ago when I had a break from work. It was great to hang out with mom, dad, nick, and lots of my friends! ALSO, it was colts vs. broncos on sunday, so nick and I were enemies on that day ;)














We really love each other, though!
















Then these past few days, Kami came to visit me all the way from Indiana for her Fall Break from school!! We had lots of fun laying out at the pool, actually going to a theater to watch a movie!!!, finding fun restaurants to eat at around here, and just relaxing! It was nice to have someone here for a while!! Thanks for comin' Kam-dawg! Here are some pics of us eating at Shanghai Grill---this sweet restaurant Kami spotted as we were driving!!





















Work has been going well! I had to work 3 days in a row last week, so now I have the rest of this weekend off, which has been nice! I've been catching up on my decorating around the apartment! My friend Brandie and I went to Ikea last weekend (a big furniture store with everything you can imagine for decorating a house.) I spent lots of money, but it was all stuff I was really....needing?! haha....okay so maybe just some "wants"---but nonetheless they go well in my place! I bought some curtains for my living room and bedroom, and some artwork as well! I'm on an art work kick right now....i keep wanting to buy tons of art to decorate with! hahah....because once I found a piece of artwork for my living room, the rest of the room fell in place! Anyways....it's still a work in progress, but I have some pictures of "the now." I worked so very hard to hang up my curtains. And by hard, I mean that I don't have a power drill, so I had to screw in the screws manually----THIS all before someone told me it would be easier to make a hole with a big nail or something to make a hole for the screw to fit in beforehand. So i was sweating like crazy and working very hard---ALL TO FIND OUT that I hadn't measured correctly and my curtains were short. So.....i still have yet to fix this! I might wait until i borrow a power drill from someone!





















I'm still planning on taking pictures at work, but I just haven't yet. Speaking of work....i have fainted twice in the past month. Both times were at the beginning of my shift, and for no apparent reason....so it's kinda weird because I have never fainted in my life before this. Both times I was standing during report (report is where the nurses we are replacing gives us information on the patients before we start.) I am 99.9% sure my knees were NOT locked during this time just because I'm always so aware of that. So.....take your own guess! I imagine it's a good time to go to a primary care doctor and get some stuff checked out! It's kinda embarrassing; I sit during report now.

To end this post, I have some random pictures of Arizona, my apartment complex, and baby Mason (my "nephew!") Auntie Kristen even had some auntie duties the other night and got to babysit the little boy! I just love that little boy! So cute! Way to make a cute kid, jess and brent! ha!





Welp....that comfy down comforter you saw in a picture above is calling my name! Love you all!

....i'm no martha stewart....

It's true, the time has come for me to start sprucing up the place! Decorating gets to be a little pricey, i've found--so i've decided to start one room at a time! I decided to start with the bathroom (kinda random, i know)...but I needed a shower curtain and things went crazy from there! It's definitely not a martha stewart design by any means, and i'm also too lazy to paint because then whenever I move I have to repaint everything white---sooooo i'll just decorate with THINGS!



I hope you'll notice the red toothbrush holder! haha! Welp...that's it for now! It's coming along, I guess! Now it's time for an evening of relaxing since The Office is starting, and ER is also new tonight!! My couch and a blanket are calling! Love you all!

Matt and Stephie's wedding extravaganza!!

Well, I'd first like to thank Matt and Stephanie Landis for getting married this past weekend because it gave me a chance to have a wonderful vacation and see lots of my friends!!! I flew to Michigan and was thrilled to have a mini-reunion with my His Instrument members!





















We all stayed at the same house and spent many hours catching up and celebrating steph's big day! The wedding was gorgeous--such a beautiful ceremony! It was definitely hard to leave everyone and it seemed like the weekend went SUPER fast. However, it was such a blessing to have the few days together that we were given. Here are some pictures! Enjoy!