game night

unusual for a friday night, we got invited out not to one event, but two! unfortunately we were only able to make one (they both started at the same time) and we went to the one we had been invited to first, a game night at ryan and carrie's house (sorry jay & mel!). we got there around 1930 and were greeted by ryan who promptly placed stickers on our back. the game was to ask yes or no questions to figure out who you were (the sticker had the name of a celebrity, movie character, singer, etc. on it). matt was frank sinatra and i was audrey hepburn. after everyone had guessed who they were, some with more help than others, we proceeded into the living room to play "werewolf" or "mafia" the game goes by both names, but the version we played involved people turning into werewolves. the gist of the game is to figure out who are the "werewolves" and who are "villagers," it's a kind of who-dunnit game because for about half of it you have your eyes closed! it was loads of fun! i only got to be a werewolf once, but matt suspected me and snitched me out right away!! other than the games, there was tons of good food and lots of laughing. thanks, ryan and carrie, for a great game night!

a pic of the ladies


the guests

apologies

sorry to those of you who have been avidly awaiting the following updates. as per usual, when we have lots going on and lots to post, our computer acted up and the internet quit working. fortunately, we did not lose any pics this time (knock on wood!), but it did prevent me from being able to update the blog. i had a computer that i could upload pics to, and a separate one that i could log online with...but not one that could do both for the period of about a week and a half! how frustrating. and once we resolved this problem, i was completely committed to studying for my most recent certification challenge to myself: the CPEN (Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse) examination. For the last two weeks I have done practically nothing but eat, sleep, work and study for this exam. I took the exam today, about 4 hours ago, and passed, about 2 hours ago! yay! matt is insistent that we do something special to celebrate, and i'm all for that, but he's sleepy and taking a nap, so i'm doing what i enjoy doing that i haven't been able to do for a while...update the blog! sorry again for the late post, as always, the posts are back-dated to keep them in chronological order.

thanks for checking in on us!
Jessica King, RN, BSN, CEN, CPEN!!!

jonah's blessing

although he's pretty much past the "baby" phase, my nephew jonah had his "baby" blessing on sunday, may 24th during the 0845 service. all went well except for jonah being at an age where he's pretty much all over the place and into everything. this equaled jonah not being very happy when he was held for the actual blessing and expected to be quiet. of course, i've never seen a baby blessing where the child was perfect all the way through, no matter what age. after the service, we headed to ray & sarah's house for some yummy food and fellowship.

jared's birthday

jared's 19th birthday

my baby brother turned 19 on may 17th, where does the time go?! we celebrated at mom & dad's house by grilling and eating meat, meat and meat. mom added some salads and rolls to the chicken, ribs, beef and chicken-stuffed jalapeno menu to round out the meal some. it was all very tasty and for dessert we had turtle brownies! yum! we got to spend a lot of time with the family and enjoyed giving jared a hard time about his horrible wishlist (yes, we do those in my family) and figuring out how to best utilize the candles mom had available (i'm proud to report it was me who came up with the appropriate math equation!). as always, we had a wonderful time.
happy birthday, jared!

mother's day 2009

mom with her pizza and beer


dad & mom, showing off her gift


mom really liked her gifts!





mother's day was a little strange this year with a miscommunication between the 4 siblings. instead of the normal mother's day bash with all the kids and such, we ended up having a split mother's day. we all went to church in the morning, then mom went to a brunch at sarah & ray's house. after that, mom & dad headed to west, tx to visit my grandma while matt & i caught up on some much-needed sleep (i worked the night before, as usual, and matt was up all night studying/preparing lectures). we met mom & dad at their house in the evening after they got home and did exactly what mom wanted: watched the mummy returns, and had pizza and beer. it was her day, after all, and the boys didn't object, big surprise!
happy mother's day to all the mothers out there! especially the ones we couldn't be with!

ER party 2009

ER party 2009

every year, my department holds a party. we used to call them "christmas" parties, but this name has slowly faded, due to the fact that our parties are always in may since during christmas time the ER is bursting past capacity in its peak season (flu, pneumonia, RSV, etc.). the parties are usually casino parties, where you have the chance to gamble with $25 worth of chips (no cash needed!) and when you're done gambling you turn in your chips for raffle tickets to win prizes purchased by the doctors (a few this year included: red door spa day, $100 cash, starbucks giftcard, an ipod shuffle with prepaid itunes downloads, a camera, a blu-ray dvd player...and more!). this year the party was held at austin ranch in grapevine. the food was great, the music was good and i even got the chance to dance and hang out with work friends while not in scrubs!!! i wasn't planning on going, in fact i was scheduled to work that saturday (may 9th) and be charge nurse. but the friday night before i got a call from scott, a new supervisor, saying that they "needed me to be at the party" and that i could either take the whole night off, or come in at 0000 (midnight) and assume charge. i told him, hesitantly, that i would take the 1/2 night off and attend the party...if they "needed" me to. i was curious, and skeptical. i told matt about the change in plans and we quickly threw together some "cowboy" outfits (it was western themed this year) and made plans to attend.
we had a great time, and at the end of the evening the curiosity was over when i was named employee of the year! matt is upset i haven't said more about this, i just don't know how to bring it up in polite conversation. so, there it is! after the awards ceremony they raffled off the prizes and matt & i won a $50 bed, bath & beyond gift card despite our best efforts to snag a starbucks one ;)
after the party, we drove to MCD where i changed and clocked-in. it was a crazy night, a GSW (gun-shot wound) that was transferred to parkland and a 41 year old CPR was what i walked into. just another night in the ER...life and trauma doesn't stop for christmas parties, unfortunately.

duncan wedding

Greg & Katherine's Wedding

a friend of mine from nursing school, katherine, recently married her long-time love, greg duncan. they had a beautiful ceremony in plano at reflections on spring creek on may 1st. we were lucky enough to be able to attend with several of my nursing friends and their spouses. the whole wedding was beautiful and had great food, some good dancing and offered a great chance to catch up with friends from TWU. as always, matt got a chance to show off his dancing skills and we enjoyed the evening out with friends. before the wedding, i also go the chance to hang out with crystal and melissa while getting ready. they came over here to get ready and crystal did our makeup. the only problem was the humidity! despite the air being on, we nearly melted! we also ended up getting to the ceremony *just* in time, even though the location was about 7 minutes away! of course, it was all fine in the end and we had a great time. i'm sorry i don't have any pics of the pre-wedding activities...we were all just melting, it didn't seem like a good photo op!
congratulations, greg & katherine! we wish you all the best and all of God's blessings in your future together!

lexi's 2nd birthday

our "baby" girl

today is lexi's second birthday. can you believe it? our little girl is practically all grown up! her puppy ways have definitely calmed and i am happy to report that we now own a rather lazy dog who enjoys sunning herself in the mornings (usually when i get home from work), sleeping (days, nights, whenever) and eating. this doesn't mean she doesn't also enjoy chasing the occasional squirrel or bunny that crosses our yard, or barking at relatively innocent looking neighbors and passers-by. she's also fairly well-trained, and continues to make improvements with her manners (i.e. not jumping on people....we're *still* working on that). one of my favorite things about her is that she recognizes my car. if she's in the back yard when i'm driving behind our house she'll chase my car the lenght of the fence and then bark at the gate and then the back door because she knows it's me! so cute! she also knows now when we are talking about her because matt & i have a "lexi voice." it typically makes her sound pretty dopey, and not very girly...but she's always very excited when we use it because she knows it's all about her.
for those who aren't tired of reading about our dog, here's a little more info on her:
she loves to be brushed, but she still hates having her nails clipped (even though i haven't cut her yet...knock on wood!). she likes walks but hates to run. she will stay at the back door, and the front door, but run out the gate if it gets left open. she's very good pest control, she eats any bug that wanders into our house. she only walks down the left side of the stairs, and likes to sleep wrapped up in the curtains. her favorite toy is a kong brand blue bone-shaped chew toy, but she hates the new black one we bought for her. she loves peanut butter, and ice, but will eat pretty much anything you give her. anytime she gets a chance, she still sleeps under the kitchen table...even though she can only fit under there now if we have at least two of the chairs pulled out. she will only sleep on whatever floor we are on (i.e. if we fall asleep on the couch, she'll stay right next to the couch, but if we're upstairs, she won't sleep downstairs). her favorite place to be when we are awake is in the room we're in, or on the stairs landing. she has destroyed and devoured every type of flower i have planted in the back yard (and no, cayenne pepper doesn't work!). she sheds like crazy, slobbers when she gets a drink and can be an awful pain in the butt sometimes, but nearly 2 years after bringing her home, we still love her an awful lot, and now we can't imagine life without her.
happy birthday, lex!

the day we picked her out...so innocent looking!


the day we brought her home


her 1st birthday, a year ago!

visiting king tut

my parents were able to get discount tickets to the king tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art and asked if we'd like to go. married to a professor, who happens to specialize in history, and being a bit of a nerd myself, we agreed and worked the trip into our already busy schedule (i had worked a lot of extras and we already had plans on friday night) and went to see the much talked-about exhibit on thursday night (4/30/09). we learned a lot about the history of the pharaohs and the process of mummification, entombment, jewelry making and other such daily-life activities in egypt during and around the time of king tutankhamun's reign. the only truly disappointing part of the whole experience was that you don't get to see any of king tut's sarcophagi (sarcophaguses?) or death masks since those are no longer allowed to leave egypt, apparently. we did get to see the jewelry and dagger he was burried with, though, and lots of other items from his tomb (including games, perfume bottles, more jewelry, furniture, and canopic jars). the most interesting part was finding out that the young pharaoh was burried within 6 encasements (rectangular boxes that were placed over his sarcophagus) and 3 sarcophaguses (?) *and* a death mask -- 10 layers before you even got to his actual mummified body, which then had other jewels and trinkets wrapped up between the layers of cloth! the whole thing took up the space of a small bathroom! crazy!!! unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside any part of the exhibit, so i only have pics of us in the gift shop afterward...sorry!


the super-classy souvenirs. don't YOU want a tissue from king tut's nose?
they also had bobble-heads...though i don't have a pic


dad and matt try on the hats


a serious pose...pretending to be a sarcophagus


but there are smiles in this one!


do we look cool, or what?! well....we are KINGS :)