Christmas

Kyle and I had a wonderful Christmas this year! We spent a few days in Jacksonville with Kyle's family and then spent Christmas Day with my family. We got way too many gifts, most of them off of our wedding registry. And some clothes too. Here's some pics.

In front of the pretty tree

Kyle and Ava

The Fescoe's supporting the Wolfpack

Our first setting of fine china

Me and the sisters

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope you all have a really special day!

Bridal Portraits

I had my bridal portraits done today!! It was quite a production. I got my nails done yesterday which wasn't that great of an idea because I had to work last night and starting IV's with those long annoying things is NOT easy. Plus it's annoying when they tear through the gloves. But they are soo pretty!! Then I got my hair and make-up done today which took almost two hours! Holy cow, the lady went through a whole can of hair spray and like 50 bobby pins!! It wasn't exactly what I wanted but close enough and I didn't want her to start over because my head was hurting from all the pulling and twisting and tangles. But we made it to the photographers, early in fact. My sis went with me and my Mom to help :) I felt like a princess getting to pose for all the pretty pics. It was really fun but I'm glad it's over!

Now Kyle and I are off to Jacksonville to see the Fescoes. Christmas is almost here, I'm so excited!

CT = HISTORY

Well school is done with a while. CT is hopefully history for me. I certainly did not enjoy the program as much as I thought I was going to. I loved the hospital, the CT techs, the patients... but the stress level was way to much for me. I would not get paid enough to deal with that much pressure every day. If you forget to ask one question, you could kill a patient, even if you ask all the right questions, the IV contrast could still kill your patient, the radiologist is constantly calling back to CT every 5 minutes, not to mention there are at least 10 patients in line for a CT at any given time. I left the hospital everyday with a headache, sometimes in tears and usually after my scheduled time to leave. So I'm going to hopefully get a nice relaxing break and pray that MRI will be much better.

Kyle is still for the most part enjoying his job at the community college. This is the ITS department's busiest time of the year when the students are gone and they have to set-up, fix or update all of the computer labs. He has had to work late and go in on Saturdays to get all of the work done. But he's doing what he loves so it all works out.

The wedding plans are almost done!! Praise God! All that is left is finalizing decorations for the reception and that will be done within the next couple of weeks hopefully. Now we just have to finish paying for everything. :)


Kyle and I are both so ready for Christmas! I just have to remember to stop and think about why we are celebrating sometimes because it gets so crazy. I am so thankful God loved all of us enough to send his ONLY son to this earth to die so we could be saved and spend eternity with Him. There is certainly no greater gift that has ever been given.

I hope everyone has a very Merry CHRISTmas!!

Thanksgiving

Kyle and I had a great Thanksgiving break. We went to Jacksonville and spent some time with his family. We got to see Gramme and PopPop and their dog who were up from Florida so that was fun. We had lots of good food of course!! And did the shopping thing on Friday and I was so proud of Kyle for hanging with the girls and being a good sport. And Kyle and I got our wedding bands while we were there and they are so beautiful!! I love mine!!

We got up early and came back to Raleigh for the NC State and Maryland game. That was such a disappointment, the only game we went to the whole season and the Wolfpack can't even score one lousy touchdown. We were highly upset and left early with everybody else.

But we got Kyle's Christmas tree put up today and the apartment decorated for the holidays. I love this time of year!

I only have three more weeks of school and then I get a couple of weeks off before I start MRI. I'm so ready to be done with school, it is so stressful!!

I get my Bridal Portraits done in a couple of weeks so I'm very excited about that! I need to get to the tanning bed though, I'm so white. That's about it, I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving!

And a BIG Congrats to Wesley and Kristina who got engaged on Thanksgiving Day! We are sooo happy for you. I love you guys!

Wedding Update

The wedding plans are coming along nicely. We are getting very close to be done. We have officially picked a florist and paid the deposit. Finding a florist was definitely the most frustrating thing we've had to do so far, imagine that. But we really like the one we picked, it's a family owned florist and the Mother and Daughter who run it are really sweet and easy to work with so we are happy with our choice.

We have also found some muscians that I think we are probably going to hire. My Mom and I heard them play at another wedding and it was beautiful! I'm not a big fan of recorded music at weddings. Live music is just so beautiful and I have such an appreciation for the talent and enthusiasm that the musicians I have. I had one wish in all my years of dreaming about my wedding day, and that was to walk down the aisle to live music. So I'm really hoping this works out!!

My Mom has recruited a couple of my aunts to help us decorate the church which will be a big help. So she came up Saturday and we went over and I kind of told her what I wanted, actually I told her exactly what I wanted ;) We are going with simple but elegant. I really like candles more so than flowers, plus they are cheaper!! So for only a couple hundred dollars we are going to be able to decorate the church. I think it's going to look really nice.

Well that's it so far! Have a great week!

State Fair

We had a really fun time last night at the NC State Fair. For those of you who don't know, I start getting excited about the fair around like January. I absolutely LOVE the state fair!! I still have yet to meet someone who gets as excited as I do about the fair, it's crazy. Usually I eat until I'm sick but this year Kyle and I did really well. Here's all that we ate:
- Al's french fries
- nachos and cheese
- giant dill pickle
- deep fried snickers bar
- grilled corn on the cob
- candy apple

I was so proud because we usually also get a bloomin' onion and fudge. We were good this time. But all of those upside down, spinning rides did kinda get to both of us. Those rides are not as cool when you're not a kid anymore. But we did also got to see all of the animals (the Angus beef cows looked really yummy), and we saw the art work, and cooking contests (somebody made a Paula Dean cake and it had a stick of butter on top, I thought that was funny), and the arts and crafts. Then of course every night, they always do fireworks!! :) We had such a great time!

Well I'm off to work, so everyone else: Have a great weekend!

Pics

Here's the pictures from our engagement party :)

Me and Kyle


Me and the sisters, Lesley and Leah


Chad


Boys watching football


opening presents


Dad, me, Crystin, Mom, G-ma


Me and the bridesmaids

Nice Weekend

Wow, It's been a really long time since I've posted anything, life is so busy!! We did have a very nice weekend though. Saturday my Mom and I went to a wedding at our church which was really fun and we got some ideas for decorating, music, ceremony stuff, etc. Then we met with another florist (the 4th one we've met with!) but we weren't really impressed. So we are going to go with one of the other ones that was a little more expensive but one that will do exactly what I want and do a great job. So hopefully that will be one more thing I can check off of the list. Then my Aunt gave Kyle and I an engagement party Saturday night which was cool. We had good food and got lots of presents!! (pics coming soon) I've got all of our gifts so far displayed on the dining room table, hehe, I'm super excited!!!!!

Then Sunday came and I wasn't feeling great at all!! I woke up with a bad headache and decided to go to church anyways hoping it would go away if I ate something. It did NOT go away, in fact it got tons worse and I had to leave and go sit in the car but then I started feeling sick. So anyways, I threw up the medicine I had taken so I had to wait for my stomach to settle and try taking some more. I spent most of the afternoon in bed and my headache finally went away. But the medicine I had taken left me feeling really crappy. I still feel crappy today and in fact I am developing some type of cold/virus. My throat is killing me and my lymph nodes are pretty swollen. So I'm drinking lots of fluids and trying to get some rest, ha!. I have to get well by Friday because we are going to the NC State Fair!!!! I can't wait!

I hope everyone else is happy and well!!

sTrEsSeD...

sooo just when I thought I couldn't be any more stressed... haha

Some guy told me the other night that I should enjoy being in school while I can because after this I'll be out in the "real world." Whatever that means... I mean for real, a 40-hour work week is looking REALLY good right about now. Considering I'm putting in around 70 hours of school and work now (only getting paid for like 20 of those hours), plus studying... bring on the "real world" baby!

Anyway, school is hard, work is frustrating, wedding planning is challenging but fun, I think I have made myself sick.... or maybe it was the patient who coughed up something on me the other day. Anyway... I had to take a mental health day today. I don't think I could have made it one more day the way things were going. I had a very nice relaxing day. Ate breakfast with Kyle, got my hair cut, ate lunch with the parental units, took a nap, made a trip to Lowes, did a little studying, met with another florist tonight, ate dinner with Mom, studied some more... ok actually it wasn't exactly relaxing, but it wasn't another crazy day at the hospital, Amen!

Well our invitations came the other day, they are really pretty!! We should be deciding on a florist soon... and a girl at work saved me some stuff from her sister's wedding so that was exciting!

They installed the new CT machine at work the other night. I was like the only one in the whole office who was excited about it. Even the doctor who paid the thousands of dollars for it forgot they were even bringing it that night and he had already forgotten what brand it was!!! OH MY GRACIOUS! But yeah, I felt like such a dork running out to watch the guys unload it and wanting to see the inside and all that jazz. I thought it was pretty cool though, I can't wait to start scanning! :-)

So...
Tomorrow is a new day! "Your mercies are new every morning..."

Injuries, Flowers and Invitations

Well the last few weeks have been extremely busy and stressful so it was nice to finally have a day off. Kyle was recently working on his car and hurt his wrist. He came by my work and I x-rayed it for him and sure enough, there was a small crack so he was supposed to be wearing a brace for a couple of weeks. But the next weekend, we went water skiing and tubing with our college class at church and he was determined to use his wrist. We had fun trying to water ski but Kyle hurt his wrist again and I have some pretty nasty bruises on my arms and legs. I would post pics but it really is quite bad looking, you might would get kinda nauseated.



In wedding news, my Mom and I met with a florist on Friday and planned out everything we want. We are getting a quote from her hopefully by Wednesday. We are going to look at a few more places but we were pretty happy with what we saw at the first place. I'll keep our plans a secret just in case we decide to change something, but the flowers will be beautiful.



We also ordered our invitations today. Our wedding director works for a printing company so we got our invitations for 1/2 price, can't beat that. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, simple but elegant.



Life is pretty good right now. School is crazy hard but I was able to cut back on some of my work hours so hopefully I'll be a little less stressed and have more time to study. Clinicals are quite challenging since a lot of the work is thrown onto me and I leave most days tired and frazzled. But last Friday the President of the hospital actually stopped by and said people have been telling him I'm doing really well so that made me feel a lot better. I really enjoy working with the patients. Some days are very sad but I know its worth it when a patient comes in sick, tired and angry and they leave smiling and wanting to hug me. It always reminds me that's why I chose this field and that I really am making a difference. It sounds so cliche but it's true, there's no better feeling.



I hope everyone had a great Labor Day!!

D-Now

Kyle and I had a great weekend! We traveled to Liberty, NC where my former youth Pastor now serves at a church there. Their youth group was participating in their first Disciple Now weekend and Kyle and I were asked to be group leaders!! We were responsible for 9 very super sweet middle school girls. (Poor Kyle) We stayed at a host home with our group and we had several sessions of Bible study. Saturday we spend the day at Camp Caraway in the mountains of NC. It was beautiful and sooo much fun. Kyle and I both did the zip-line which was extremely fun but a little scary. We'll post some pics later! Now we are both very tired and need some sleep. I hope everyone else had a relaxing weekend and have a Happy Monday!

Kenny Chesney Concert!

Here are some pictures from the Kenny Chesney concert! Enjoy.

New Apartment

Hey, it's Kyle again. Just wanted to post some pictures of the new apartment. I finally got it cleaned this weekend so hot off the press.









Hope ya'll enjoy the pictures, as for me, it's off to the Kenny Chesney concert!

First week of CT

My first week of CT is over!! Thank God! It was a very long and stressful week. I went to school all day then work all night, plus extra hours because one of the girls was sick this week. The classroom part of CT is not fun at all. The teacher goes really fast and we had 2 quizzes the first day of class and 2 quizzes and a test on the second day. I'm not a slow learner and I don't consider myself to be a dumb person but I can't keep up with that lady. She assumes we already know everything so she just flies through it. Whatever though. As for the clinical part, I LOVE IT!! They are already letting me scan patients and I'm actually getting the hang of it. The two techs I'm working with let me do everything, they don't push me out of the way and take over so that's really nice. They even let me start an IV by myself today and they weren't even in the room so I think they were a tab bit impressed. But since they grade me, I'm kissing tail all semester. Sometimes you gotta be the one to jump up and clean the room and help patients to the bathroom if you want a good grade. I'm OK with that though because I love the patients and CT is sooo interesting! I love radiology! I'm so glad it's Friday though!! Kyle moves into his new apartment tomorrow, yay! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Home at last

My Mom was finally able to come home from the hospital today. She still has a little bit of fluid in her lungs but that will go away with time. We are ALL so glad we don't have to spend another day at that hospital. Now everybody has to catch up on some much needed sleep. One thing I did learn very quickly is that it is a completely different experience when you are at a hospital working verses when you or a loved one are there as a patient. That may be one of the reasons this was allowed to happen, to show me how to care for my patients even more than I did before. Now I have been in their shoes and I know how frustrating it can be when you want answers and the staff seem to be moving in slow motion. I feel like I learned a lot and I am so glad my Mom is home where she can finish recovering.

In wedding news, Kyle and I had our outdoor engagement pictures taken last Friday night so hopefully we can post a link so everyone can see them soon.

I have clinical orientation tomorrow and start classes on Monday. I'm so ready to get this school thing over with. I hope everyone else has a great week!

Not such a hott weekend

Well this weekend was nothing like we had planned for. My Mom went to the ER Friday morning because she was vomiting, had lower back pain, fever of 102, bad headache, bright red face and hands, basically just miserable. At first they thought she had meningitis so they wanted to immediately do a spinal tap and made her and my Dad wear masks. I thought that was a little extreme but they got some lab work back before they did the spinal tap and realized it wasn't meningitis, they diagnosed her with a severe kidney infection. So the ER doc told her he would give her some antibiotics and send her home. Well after 3 hours and her symptoms were getting worse, they realized they were wrong and that she needed immediate help. So they sent her to a room on the floor where she just got worse. Her pulse was 130 all day Friday and her standing BP was 80/50 and the nurses were understandably very concerned. So finally about 7pm Friday, she was sent to the ICU. They called in an infectious disease Doctor who came in and within 10 minutes diagnosed her with Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). They sent out some lab work that will take about a week to come back and that will help them know exactly how she got TSS. They were pumping her full of fluids because she was so dehydrated and giving her so many antibiotics that she began to swell and fluid was going into her lungs. So she has gotten no sleep in 3 days now and is pretty miserable. All of her veins are collapsing so they are going to put a picc line in tomorrow (they don't do them on weekends). She has been in ICU since Friday night and she is just now sitting up and having somewhat of an appetite. They think she will be in ICU again tonight and hopefully get in a room on the floor tomorrow. So hopefully in a few days she'll be well enough to come home. They have limited her visitors mostly because she doesn't feel like company and just has so much going on right now, she just wants to see family. So we are all tired and praying for her to feel better soon. I hate leaving her by herself in ICU but she needed some rest so we came home for a few hours. I'll post another update later.

Wedding stuff!!

My Mom and I took a road trip today out to Raeford, I'm still not exactly sure where we were, haha. But anyways, we met with the lady who is going to make our cake. I went in knowing exactly what I wanted, expecting her to have to adjust some things but she could totally do everything I asked for and was really super nice and I think she is going to do a great job. I've seen and tasted her work before and it was awesome so I'm pretty excited. The cake is a little bigger than I initially wanted just because I'm a plain Jane who doesn't like big-extravagant-draw attention to myself stuff. But I have way too big of a family so we have to invite almost 300 hundred people, and I seriously hope only like 200 come but it's all good. The cake is going to be B-E-A-U-TIFUL!! And her price is less than half of what I was quoted at several places in Raleigh. YAY! Plus we looked at some decorations for the church and I pretty much picked out what I wanted and it's not going to cost nearly as much as we anticipated which is great. We are going with more candles and less flowers since flowers are pretty much a rip-off. We also found some cool centerpieces (only like $7 a piece) for our reception tables so we are so excited and got tons of stress off our shoulders today. I hope everyone else is having a great week. I have just a few more days until school starts back so I'm enjoying those days and relaxing!!

Me...

I'm a... student
Someday, I want... to take a cross country road trip
There are... many things I've screwed up in life
I can't stand... apathy
I wish... I could speak Spanish fluently
I don't know... why my Grandma got cancer
I want... to live a long life
When I see... hurting people I am sad
I need... to slow down and enjoy life
I love... Kyle
I hate... when I'm wrong
Why can't... there be immediate justice
I wonder... how people live without the hope I have found
I'm sad... when I think about leaving my family
I'm happy... when I think about marrying Kyle
I don't need... lots of money
I can't... do calculus
I believe... I will be walking streets of gold one day
If I could, I would... have taken a nap today

CT/MRI

This week has been very busy so far. I've been working full-time hours this week so I've had very little time to do anything important. But I had my CT/MRI orientation today. I really like the teachers and there are two people in the program who I was in x-ray school with so that's cool. It's going to be very hard and very stressful because we only have 20 weeks to learn everything for CT and 20 weeks for MRI. It doesn't sound that hard to most of you I'm sure but you don't just push a button, you have to know EVERYTHING! The different machines, how they work, how they affect the body, the different contrast agents, how they affect the body, how to position the patients, how much radiation to use, how to read the images, and so on. Anyways, it's quite stressful to learn all of that in 20 weeks when I had 2 years to learn x-ray. But my clinicals site is in Dunn at Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital. I don't have a lot of good things to say about that hospital, but the radiology department is stellar. I had x-ray clinicals there my first year and they have an excellent department manager and I already know the CT and MRI techs who will be training me so I'm very excited. I've been away from the whole ER scene for a while now so I'm going to have to get used to the bleeding, broken patients on backboards again. So that should be fun. I just want to get through CT so I can move onto MRI, which is the area I hope to work in. Well that's all for now, have a great weekend!

Update

I'm pretty much enjoying my last summer break ever! I've stayed pretty busy though with work and wedding planning. I'm still working part time but have a couple 40-hour weeks coming up. I did get a raise at work though, my supervisor called me Saturday while I was at the office and she said the doctor agreed to the raise which goes into effect immediately!! I was so excited, I actually get a little bit of respect now from everybody since I'm officially Registered. They even got me a new name tag that says Lindsey Simmons RT (R). You guys have no idea how special that makes me feel, haha. Plus when the PA's ask me if I see anything on an x-ray, I feel pretty important then when I can point things out to them. I love my job, it's tons of fun. Except when you have to x-ray a kid like I did last night who was screaming in my face and ear, kicking and was just quite uncooperative, (and it's 20 minutes after closing time) then you just want to quit. :)

In other news, Kyle and I went by and looked at our new apartment today. The one Kyle had reserved didn't work out because the lady decided she wanted to stay. So we actually got a bigger apartment for the same price, yay! It's not huge but it's very close to my parents, church and work so it works out great! We're both excited about that, we can start moving Kyle's stuff in on July 28th.

Wedding plans are going well too. My Mom contacted a lady who will probably be doing the cake for us. She did two of my cousins' cakes and they were delicious. She was going to charge us like a third of what the Raleigh folks were charging so I'm very excited about that. We have a limo reserved, I'm looking into dj's and decorations and things like that now too. Kyle and I have been reading some very good books that are supposed to help you prepare for marriage. I have to say they have all been wonderful so far and I think we have both learned a LOT!! I'm sure that you can never fully prepare for such a life-changing event but we are doing our best with lots of advice and counsel from others. We're not done yet but here's a list we have started:

"For Women Only" - Shaunti Feldhahn
"For Men Only" - Jeff and Shaunti Feldhahn
"Love Life for Every Married Couple" - Ed Wheat, M.D.
"Preparing for Marriage" - Dennis Rainey
"Discovering God's Way of Handling Money" - Crown Financial Ministries
"The Complete Financial Guide for Young Couples" - Larry Burkett
"Intended for Pleasure" - Ed and Gaye Wheat

I know there are tons more out there, so if you have any suggestions for other books we should read, let us know!! I would strongly suggest any of the above books to married and single people, they are great!

I hope everyone is having a great week!! I'm so excited for Brian and Kristen, tomorrow is the BIG day!! :) I can't wait to see pictures!

Race pics

Here are some pics from the 5K race!


At the start line

Off we go!

The Fairview group

Our sweaty backs

Weekend

This weekend was very nice. Friday my Mom and both sisters went to David's Bridal to look at bridesmaid dresses. It was a very productive trip and we found a beautiful dress for the girls. Both sisters loved it so I felt pretty good about it since they are both very picky! And while I was browsing through the dresses I found a really pretty black formal gown that was marked down from $150 to $40. I tried it on and it fit perfectly!! So of course I got it since I will need at least two formal gowns for the cruise. I was really really excited that I had got such a good deal!

Then Saturday morning was the big 5K race. Kyle and I got there early so we could stretch and try to mentally prepare for the run. There was over 200 racers and 14 of us from our church so we got together and the guy leading up the group gave us a pep talk and got us all pumped up and ready. My Mom showed up right before we started so that was cool too. I was soooo nervous though because it had been so long since I competed in a race. The first mile was easy enough and I was right on pace with where I wanted to be. But then it started getting really hilly and a lot more challenging. My second mile was a little slower than I hoped but I was still ok with time. Just before I thought it was going to be over, we ran around the corner and there it was.... the last 1/4 mile was straight up hill. I thought I was going to die so I told Kyle to run on ahead of me and get a good time. So that boy sprinted up that dern hill and left me jogging very slowly and trying not to faint. Finally when I got to the top I was ok and then sprinted to the finish line. Kyle's time was 30:45 and my time was 31:30. Not too bad for a first time. I had estimated my time to be 32 minutes so I did pretty well with pacing myself but it still hurt like crap and my legs are killing me today! We are doing another race in the fall and I think my Dad is going to join us then so I'm pretty excited about that.

And my friend Crystin who is going to be one of my bridesmaids was in town this weekend so we took her to David's Bridal Saturday afternoon and she loved the dress too. So I was happy to get her approval. Now we are just waiting for Courtney to see it and hopefully like it too.

Kyle and I were supposed to have engagement pictures taken today at the beach but since it was raining, they were canceled. I was kinda bummed but it turned out ok because we had a very nice and relaxing day. We also got the majority of our wedding registries completed so it was still a productive day. I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!!

RT (R)

I passed my National Registry!! I had been waiting for 2 very long weeks and I checked the mail 5 times yesterday before I went to work and it had still not come yet. So I get to work and have an email from a classmate that has a list of like 6 people that had already heard back so I called my house to make sure the mail had not come yet, which it hadn't. So finally about 30 minutes later my Dad calls my work and says that he thinks my scores came back so of course I wanted him to open it right then!!! I passed all 5 sections with a total average score of 96!! I am soooo excited! I really thought I had done a lot worse than that. So I am officially a Registered Radiologic Technologist!!

Everything else is going well here. I've been cleaning out my room and throwing a ton of things away that I've kept for the last 21 years. Kyle and I went to Target and bought some big huge storage bins to pack all my stuff in until he moves to the new apartment. My room looks a whole lot cleaner now but I feel like it's too empty. I've lived in this house for most of my life and have so many memories here. I almost had a breakdown yesterday trying to throw stuff away. I love my family, my house, my dog and cat... all the stuff that I take for granted so much! It didn't help that my Dad just tore down the swing set I had lots of fun times on! I love Kyle very much and can't wait to marry him but it is still very sad. I just have to keep reminding myself that I will be right down the road and can come home anytime I want. And yes, it's still like 10 months away but I'm trying to get at least some of the stress and sadness out of the way now so I can focus on the wedding next March.

As for today, I AM SO HAPPY!! I'm taking my papers to work today and asking for a raise! ;) Have a wonderful day!!

Lindsey Simmons RT (R)

Jessica's Wedding

We had a wonderful weekend at my cousin's wedding in Atlanta. Here's a few pics!


Kip and Jessica at the rehearsal dinner


All the girl cousins and Jessica



Hayley, Holly, Me and the other Holly


Me and baby Kooper, he is sooooo sweet!!!

Riding around Atlanta in the limo, me, Leah and Holly

The bridesmaids, Holly (Jessica's sister) and Lesley

Kip and Jessica dancing

LOVE

We took this really cute pic of me, my Mom and sisters on Mother's Day, it's a little late but I decided to post it anyways because I love my Mom, she's really the greatest!



And here's another one of Kyle and me because I love him too!! This was taken at a really super nice Mexican restaurant in Raleigh at a graduation party. If you've never been to a party thrown by a bunch of Mexicans, you are seriously missing out. We were entertained the entire night, it was great fun.

Sad but relieved

OK, I'm soooo super sad that last night was the last episode of Gilmore Girls EVER! I cannot believe they are taking that show away from me! It's the only show I ever watch and I've been watching it since Season 1. I seriously cried like the whole time, it's so sad! aghhh. oh well, I know it's just a show, but you get so attached to Lorelei, Rory, Luke and everybody else when they've been a part of your life for the last 7 years. haha. So sad.

But I'm relieved that my Registry is finally over!! I think I passed, but I have to wait a few weeks to find out for sure. It was harder than everyone kept saying it was going to be, but I think I did well enough to pass. We'll see.

Nervous

The day has finally come. I've been studying a LOT but I'm still really nervous about my X-ray exam tomorrow. Please pray for me because I'm really scared. It will be a little comforting to have a few of my former classmates in the same room with me but it's still a really hard test.

I'll be so glad when it's finally over! Then I will be heading down to Atlanta, GA for my cousin's wedding for the whole weekend. I'm pretty excited about it, and hopefully I'll get some ideas for my wedding. Anyways, I hope everyone else has an awesome week!

Summertime!!

My summer so far has actually been quite busy. Not a lot of R&R but I'm being productive. I'm still running 3x a week but my knees are really bothering me. I got new running shoes but I don't have any where to run with a softer track so I'm having to stick to cement. I'm really enjoying the running though because I have more energy, I feel better, I look better and I love competition. I'm sure Kyle is quite sick of me asking how fast he runs each day, I can't help it!! I like to win! ;)

Work is great! I really love my new job and all the people are really really nice! There's not a lot of pressure for me to be perfect and people aren't always looking over my shoulder making sure I do everything little thing right. I usually have to stay late, but it's not too terrible. I have really enjoyed working with the patients, they are just too sweet. I especially have enjoyed the older patients, I love them!

Wedding plans are coming along too. Kyle and I ordered our save-the-date magnets finally!!!!! They should be here in a few weeks. And we are looking forward to having some engagement pictures taken at the beach in a few weeks. Hopefully they will turn out nice. Other than that I'm trying to study for my Registry that I have to take next Wednesday. I'm a lot nervous about it and I just want to pass, I don't care how high of a score I get anymore. So I'm off to study. Have a great day!

Job Starts Monday

I officially signed my contract yesterday so as of May 1, 2007 I am an IT Technician. Pay was increased a little but not what I expected. At the end of the summer I'll be getting another raise so all in all it works out pretty well. I'm very excited and will no longer have to sit behind a desk all day. I also get to go to work in the morning which believe it or not is an improvement. Hope all is well.

I'm done!

Well folks, I'm officially done with x-ray school. Today was my last day! It was bittersweet... it's been a very long, tiring and stressful 2 years, but it was also one of the best experiences of my life. It was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done before. I know most people think all x-ray techs do is push a button, but it's so much more than that. I have learned sooo much about radiation, myself and other people. I will treasure the friendship of 25 fellow students, instructors and hospital staff forever! Although I complained about the work, the stress and being tired all the time, I already miss it. I will miss waiting for my carpool buddy Lisa at Harris Teeter every morning and speeding to make it to class on time, hearing Candace complain about her love life, Mrs. Wood's sarcasm, Bob always getting to leave clinicals early, Andrea's excessive talking, Mrs. Beasley's hyperness, ECMC's free lunches, Erica's sweetness, Ashley's snoring, Liz's cool British accent, Chick-fil-A Wednesdays, and I could go on forever. We had a great class and were very close even from day one. I'm actually quite sad right now even though I'm pretty excited. This is a big accomplishment for me and I'm excited about starting CT/MRI school in a couple of months. Hopefully I will see everyone again sometime.

Enough sadness, it's summertime!!! I definitely needed a break. I'm going to be working a lot this summer and hopefully going on a few short trips here and there. And I'm super excited about getting some more wedding planning done!!!!!! I'll keep everybody updated though. I hope everyone has a wonderful week, good luck on exams for those still in school.

Here's some pics from the last 2 years of my life :)

Bob's Party, Summer 2006

Me, Candace and Fallon

Scholarship dinner, Fall 2006

Fallon, Lisa, Candace and Me

At the Mock Registry in Raleigh, Spring 2007

Me, Andrea and Matt

JMH Crew, Smithfield, NC

Spring 2007

Tagged

I was tagged...

Here's the deal- You go to Wikepedia and type in your birth date (minus the year), and see the events of the day you were born.

Here are mine... OCTOBER 24

3 Events: Black Thursday 1929, First transcontinental telegraph system was completed 1861, Plane crash killing 10 members of NASCAR Hendrick Motorsports 2004

2 Important Birthdays: William Penn 1644, Sarah Joseph Hale 1788 (poet, wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb), Monica 1980

1 Death: Rosa Parks - 2005

Holiday or Observance: United Nations Day

Tag 5 bloggers: They've already done this :)

Same Place, New Job

This is Kyle posting to the blog, I figured I'd give a little heads to what has been going on with me with work. I got the official word today that I will be an IT Technician. My hours change from 1130 to 8, to 9 to 6 on May 7. These will eventually move to 8 to 5 once they find a replacement for my position. This new opportunity comes at a great time when we're needing a little money for the wedding. With the new title I will get a significant raise compared to what I was making. I just feel like everything is starting to fall into place and I will be able to get out from behind the desk and work on computers, not sit behind one. I'll probably start posting to the blog a little more now to let everyone know what is going on.

Busy times...

The last two weeks have been very busy! I've been working and studying like crazy! We had our Radiography Pinning Ceremony last Thursday night. It was soooo exciting!! I only have two more weeks of school and then I get a couple months off for summer break then I start CT/MRI July 23. Here are a few pics from the pinning ceremony!




Me and Kyle





Me and my sisters












Me with my parents